Lawyers in Las Vegas Warn that Nevada Payday Loaners May be in Legal Trouble
Lawyers in Las Vegas and Nevada are no strangers to class action suits, and this most recent one against Rapid Cash is bringing some underhanded dealing into light. The Las Vegas Review Journal recounts how the Nevada Supreme Court was asked to uphold a lower court ruling establishing the suit on behalf of as many as 16,000 people who were unfairly subjected to default judgments from Rapid Cash. Lawyers in Las Vegas representing the class reported that the suit was the only way that the tens of thousands of borrowers would see justice in their claim of being subjected to defaulted loans and credit without the proper legal notice.
Rapid Cash isn’t having it. Protesting vehemently in the form of legal affidavits with dubious credibility, Rapid Cash insists that the company they employed to enter defaults against their borrowers (On Scene Mediations) served their clients with copies of court papers. But even large companies can’t get away with lying in court, and the lawyers in Las Vegas ensured that there were criminal convictions as a result of the conduct of the process servers’ falsely submitted affidavits.
The controversy around the class action suit, however, stems from a difference of legal opinion. One Las Vegas lawyer representing Rapid Cash has issued a statement explaining that individuals who felt that they were not served proper documentation could have taken legal action earlier and appeared in the Justice Court to ask to have the default judgments set aside. Other lawyers in Las Vegas argue that the petition to the court for the default judgment to be released doesn’t guarantee it will be so, and furthermore puts the burden of rectification upon the client who has already been wronged.
“It’s a matter of justice,” one lawyer in Las Vegas representing the class action suit argues. And it would seem that the Clark County District Court Judge might agree . In October 2010, the same judge ruled the class action suit to be a valid claim. Representatives of Rapid Cash disagree, saying that the 16,000 people included in the class action shouldn’t be, since 7,000 of these people did not respond to letters, and another 8,000 were unreachable via mail (letter with incorrect address were returned). Furthermore, lawyers in Las Vegas representing Rapid Cash are insisting that the borrowers should be subjected to arbitration as required in the loan contracts. The Nevada Supreme Court will rule whether these borrowers will have to file suit individually and enter arbitration, or whether the class action suit can stand.
One of the lawyers in Las Vegas representing the class action suit reiterated, “When there are cases of widespread fraud, it is virtually impossible to have thousands of separate court actions, so [a class action] is the only way for consumers to get relief.” The point she makes is one of a vulnerable population: utilizers of payday loans are some of the most susceptible to fraud and being taken advantage of, and often don’t have a lot of options. These are the people in need of the lawyers in Las Vegas to represent justice for them in this process.