Medtech College (www.medtech.edu) is a multi-campus medical professions trade school with branches at:
Atlanta-Marietta, Georgia
Orlando, Florida
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Greenwood, Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana
Lexington, Kentucky
Silver Springs, Maryland
Falls Church, Virginia
Washington, D.C.
What I have run across is a surprising number of collection suits against students pending in Lawrence Township Small Claims Court in Indianapolis, Indiana. The suits are filed by PFS as their collection agent. It is important to note that, of the cases I reviewed, most were TRANSFERRED INTO Lawrence Township from other places, primarily Warren Township. Why is that important? The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act provides that a debt collector must sue you either in the judicial district where you live, or in the judicial district where you signed a written contract. The Medtech campus in question is located in Lawrence Township, so people who were sued originally in other townships may have been sued in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act has a 1 year statute of limitations, So if they sued you in the wrong place more than one year ago, your claim under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act may be barred by the statute of limitations. That being said, at least one court has ruled that the statute of limitations under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is subject to the “discovery rule”. What that means is that if you didn’t have notice of the suit against you, you may still have your one year to sue from the date you find out about the suit against you.
Also, if you were never served with a summons and a complaint, regardless of where you live, you may have grounds to have the judgment set aside and rendered void, no matter where you live and no matter how old the judgment is. This is a matter of federal law, and it applies regardless of which campus you attended.
If you have been sued by PFS or Medtech in Indiana, call my office at 317-662-4529 or through the website at www.hoferlawindy.org. If you have been sued in relation to one of the non-Indiana campuses, contact the National Association of Consumer Advocates for referral to a consumer lawyer near you through the lawyer referral service at www.naca.net or www.consumeradvocates.org.
Finally, if you have been sued by Medtech or any other trade school, you should know that you may have defenses to a collection case based on any mis-statements or lies that were used to recruit you into the program or any other breach of contract by the school. If you took out federal student loans, you should bring the misrepresentations to the attention of the U.S. Department of Education. For more information about filing a complaint concerning student loans, check out this FTC page:
http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0160-student-loans
IF YOU HAVE BEEN GETTING COLLECTION CALLS FROM PFS (or any other debt collector, for that matter) please note that if they are calling your cell phone, if you tell them they do not have permission to call your cell phone, and after giving them notice not to call your cell phone they keep calling the cellphone using an automated dialer or automated voice, you may be able to sue them and get damages of $500 to $1500 per call. The key is to be able to prove you gave them notice, and to keep track of the calls after that notice. Also, under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, if you give them notice in writing to cease collection communications, they can only contact you once to acknowledge that they are ceasing communications, and after that they must sue or cease collecting completely.
These numbers have been associated with PFS 877-836-1377, 317-822-7026. There may be more.