01/06/10
Last year, 11% of the 14,475 cases involved debt collection. The Consumer Defense Clinic offers free legal assistance in court to selected defendants involved in debt collection. The program will benefit second and third-year students who will have an opportunity to gain some real experience in the courtroom, and the school is hopeful that the program can be used in other district courts.
According to Ian Lyngklip, a lawyer who teaches consumer law at the school and runs the program, ''the defendants get access to justice rather than being steamrolled by it. You really need a lawyer if you're going to effectively defend yourself against a debt collector.''
Lyngklip, from Southfield, approached the university to create the program after learning from Wayne District Judge Laura Mack, that a number of defendants who are facing debt collection appear in court without legal representation. Judge Mack expressed some concern that some defendants didn't have any outstanding debt or the outstanding debt was less than the collector alleged.
Lyngklip's program has shown some success and the students have ''won dismissals on 90% of their cases.” On December 2, two students, Samera Kadry, 27, of Dearborn and Mike Meltzer, 24, of Detroit, persuaded Judge Mack to dismiss a case against their client, Nicole Moten, 40, of Wayne, who was sued by a debt collector to recover a $645 balance that Medicaid failed to pay regarding a surgical procedure at an Oakland County hospital. The two students conversed with Moten and determined that Medicaid reimbursed the hospital and the debt was paid in full.
In Kadry's first court appearance, she successful persuaded Judge Mack to dismiss the suit because the debt collector's lawyer failed to appear in court.
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