When a bank, lender, credit bureau, or debt collector gets it wrong, the consumer is often the one left to fix it. Petroff Amshen LLP represents New York consumers in disputes with financial institutions, enforcing the state and federal laws that govern how those institutions must treat the people they report on, lend to, and collect from.
How Petroff Amshen Approaches Financial Services Litigation
The firm identifies which law governs the conduct at issue, gathers the record that documents it, and litigates the claim in state or federal court. Financial services cases turn on specific duties the law places on institutions: to report accurately, to investigate disputes, to service loans correctly, and to collect debts within the rules. The question is whether the institution met the duty the law imposed.
What claims does financial services litigation cover?
These cases involve the institutions consumers deal with every day and the laws that regulate them:
- Credit reporting disputes with the bureaus and the companies that furnish information, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681.
- Debt collection conduct governed by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692.
- Mortgage servicing problems governed by the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act and the Truth in Lending Act.
- Deceptive business practices under New York General Business Law § 349.
Who are the institutions on the other side?
Financial services litigation involves banks and lenders, mortgage servicers, the nationwide credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — and debt collectors. Each is regulated, and each has obligations under the law. When those obligations are not met and a consumer is harmed, the law provides a path.
State and federal forums
Depending on the claims, these cases proceed in New York State courts or in the federal district courts, the Eastern District of New York and the Southern District of New York. Some cases combine state and federal claims. Petroff Amshen LLP represents New York consumers in both.
How do these cases proceed, and what should you keep?
A financial services case is built on documents: statements, letters, dispute records, and the institution’s responses. Keeping copies of everything you send and receive, and noting the dates, preserves the record a claim depends on. From there the case follows the ordinary path of civil litigation, from the complaint through discovery, motion practice, and resolution or trial.
Authoritative sources: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau · Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681
