If you’ve been contacted by Sandia Resolution Company LLC (or sued by them) you may be wondering who they are. Sandia is a company that buys packages of debt from other companies, and then tries to make money by collecting those debts from consumers. They’re based out of New Mexico, but they may be trying to collect against you in other states.
We’ve represented consumers against debt collectors, including against Sandia Resolution Company. They’re very active in filing lawsuits to try to collect the debts they buy—and once a debtor gets a judgment against you, they could collect using a variety of methods, including garnishing your wages or foreclosing on your house. Most of the time companies like this get default judgments because the consumer doesn’t actually fight back. A default judgment means they win automatically—it’s like forfeiting a football game because you didn’t show up.
The problem is that because so few consumers actually show up and fight, not all debt collectors are careful about making sure they actually have the legal right to sue—and that can violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (also called the FDCPA). The FDCPA is a federal law that created lots of rules to protect average people from unfair collection efforts by debt collectors.
When someone like Sandia Resolution buys a package of old debts, many of those debts may be outside the statute of limitations. Sometimes debts get passed around between debt collectors over and over again, and each one takes a shot at collecting. You might find that you’re being sued over something that happened four or five years ago. For example, we filed a counterclaim for one of our clients alleging that Sandia sued on a debt more than four years after the consumer allegedly defaulted on it. Under the FDCPA law, debt collectors can’t sue for debts that are so old that they’re outside the statute of limitations. Suits like that shouldn’t be filed in the first place—but when they are, we believe the debt collector should pay a penalty so there’s a consequence and they’re more careful about not doing it to other people, too.
In another case, Harman v. Sandia Resolution Company, LLC, a resident of the Village of Ionia, Missouri sued Sandia Resolution for filing a lawsuit in a county where he didn’t live in when the suit was filed and where he didn’t sign the contract. The FDCPA can protect you in situations like that, where you’re sued far away from where you actually are. Sometimes debt collectors just make a mistake, and sometimes they do that intentionally. But either way, they have to pay a penalty—the FDCPA encourages consumers to enforce the law and the penalty can be $1,000 even if the consumer wasn’t injured. They could have to pay your attorney’s fees and other kinds of damages, too, including for emotional distress.
If you feel like you’re being harassed by a debt collector, Click Here to Submit Your Claim. We handle lawsuits by consumers against debt collection companies, and we’re happy to review your case. We don’t charge any fees for consultation.