On April 16, 2009, a Montana jury decided to punish debt collection law firm Johnson, Rodenburg and Lauinger for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (”FDCPA”) as well as Montana’s consumer protection law, awarding $250,000 in emotional distress damages, $1,000 in statutory damages, $60,000 in punitive damages (this is the maximum amount of punitive damages permitted by Montana state law).  A question remains whether the Plaintiff is entitled to even more money under Montana’s consumer protection law.

The jury rejected the debt collector’s argument that the disabled victim should only be entitled to $500 in damages. The jury found that the debt collector violated the law by suing on a debt that was barred by Montana’s statute of limitations, adding attorney fees to the debt not permitted by the original credit card contract, and by serving abusive requests for information upon the victim.

John Heenan, Esquire of Heenan Law Firm PLLC located in Billings, Montana did an incredible job of representing the Plaintiff in this case.

More details about the case can be found in the Billings Gazette by clicking here.

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