Plaintiff sues surety and law firm over bond forfeiture that was set aside

Plaintiff paid a bail bondsman a premium for a bond to bail her son out of jail. At the time she obtained the bond, she signed papers which had the legal effect of holding her responsible for the full amount of the bond, $3,500, if her son failed to appear. Plaintiff’s son failed to appear for his arraignment and he bond was revoked. Thereafter, the Court executed a judgment against plaintiff’s son as principal and National Casualty Corporation as surety for $3,500. However, plaintiff’s son eventually appeared in court and the bond forfeiture judgment was set aside. A law firm and two collection agencies sent correspondence and made telephone calls to the plaintiff claiming that she owed National Casualty Corp. $3,500.00. The law firm later sued the plaintiff on this alleged debt. Plaintiff filed suit against National Casualty, the law firm and the debt collectors for violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act principally because they were trying to collect a debt that, as she alleged, did not exist. The Defendants moved to dismiss on various grounds. The Court, in denying the motions to dismiss the FDCPA claims stated that it was bound to accept as true all of the allegations in the plaintiff’s complaint and that if true, would constitute violations of the FDCPA. In its ruling, the Court stated: “An amount misstated by the debt collector need not be deliberate, reckless, or even negligent to trigger liability – it need only be false. Id. In other words, the FDCPA recognizes a strict liability approach.” Barlow v. Safety Nat’l Cas. Corp., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75585 (decided May 30, 2012))