HOFER LAW FILES OPEN RECORDS COMPLAINT AGAINST LOCAL SMALL CLAIMS COURT
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Consumer Law Office of Steve Hofer
3750 Guion Road, Suite 190
Indianapolis IN 46222
317-662-4LAW
www.hoferlawindy.com
317-662-4529 [email protected]
August 21, 2014 Via Mail and Fax
317-233-3091
Luke Britt
Indiana Public Access Counselor
W470 Indiana Government Center South
402 West Washington Street
Indianapolis IN 46204
OFFICIAL OPEN
RECORDS COMPLAINT
Agency:
Wayne Township (Marion County) Small Claims Court
5401 West Washington
Street, Indianapolis IN 46241
Date
of Request/Agency Denied Access: August 4, 2014
Dear Counselor Britt:
I am hereby making a
complaint of denied access under the Indiana Access to Public Records Act. The agency in question is the Wayne Township
Small Claims Court in Indianapolis. On
Monday, August 4, 2014, during regular business hours, between 2:30 and 3:00
PM; I went to the Wayne Township Small Claims Court for the purposes of
reviewing a selection of recent cases filed by bad debt buyers. The abuse of the court system by bad debt
buyers is a matter of public concern.
For context see: The One Hundred
Billion Dollar Problem in Small Claims Court: Robo-Signing and Lack of Proof,
Peter A. Holland, published in Journal of Business & Technology Law, Vol.
6, p. 259, 2011 and online at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1875727.
See also the New York Times Magazine feature story Paper Boys: Inside the Dark, Labyrinth, and Extremely Lucrative World
of Consumer Debt Collection, Jake Halpern, http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/15/magazine/bad-paper-debt-collector.html?_r=0.
At
the Wayne Township Court, I was allowed to use the public access terminal to
identify a selection of recent cases. I copied down some case numbers,
approximately 20, and asked to see the files that went with the case numbers. The attendant said that I was not allowed to
see the files, that they were not public. The only public information was the
information on the terminal. I told the attendant that she is mistaken, these
are public records that are readily accessed by collection attorneys on a daily
basis. On that same day I had inspected files
without incident at Pike Township Small Claims Court. The attendant told me
that I would have to take it up with the supervisor who was not in, and would
not be available until tomorrow. She would not give me the full name of the
supervisor. I offered to make a written request, but I was rebuffed.
I
believe it is the responsibility of the agency to have persons trained in
compliance with the act on duty during all regular business hours regardless of
the presence or absence of any given supervisor. I believe my treatment at this court conveys
an image that the court’s policy is to be friendly to debt collectors but not
to persons who want to police the conduct of debt collectors.
Finally,
I would have made an informal request for an opinion by the counselor if it
were not for a disturbing fact that I found out later. In the MYCASE online record system, the
defendants’ names are missing from the online records of a number of collection
cases filed in Wayne and Lawrence Townships after 8/11/2014. (See enclosed documentation.) If researchers aren’t even able to get defendant names from the online system; it will be
impossible to uncover problems with debt collectors misusing the court system[1].
Sincerely,
Steven
R. Hofer
Attorney
at Law
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The MYCASE documents that I attached included lawsuits filed by:
Credit Acceptance Corporation
LVNV Funding LLC
Convergence Receivables LC
Calvary SPV 1 LLC
MSW Capital LLC
Second Round LP
Credit Acceptance Corporation
NCEP, LLC
Jefferson Capital Systems, LLC
Enclosures – Mycase records
[1] The
Mycase sheets are included for illustration only. Because for this purpose the
names of the defendants are irrelevant, I have partially redacted those that
are included.
Co
