The Law Offices of Herbert Davis Richard Murkey, Paula Salcedo, Dennis Murkey, Frenchie, David, and Martin More insight to this company and what they are about. Tarzana, California

After getting burned for $10,000 and 6 lawsuits that followed with it due to Herb Davis' debt settlement program, I decided to investigate the legality of this companies operation and I   finally trampled upon this article. This is an interesting written piece that exposes the debt settlement business for what it really is. I hope many current or future clients of Herbert Davis will take the time out and read this interesting article and let them make up their own minds whether or not they were scammed by this company.
This article makes no references to Herbert Davis, however the methods that Herbert Davis uses to settle debts are very similar or shall I say identical to the one used in the article.
I also would like the Law Offices of Herbert Davis to step forward and file a rebuttal should they feel that they were falsely accused in any way, god knows I'm sure they are just dying to sue me for libel/slander, and of course they are welcome to subpoena the IP that ties in to this article after spending thousands of dollars in litigation fees trying to get it, which will of course lead no where, so let me save you the time.
I'd like to also ad that if by any chance the Law Offices of Herbert Davis did even successfully settle one clients debts then please post the proof on this site showing that the creditor actually agreed to take your lousy 10 percent payment, this is an open forum so please entertain us and show us the money$$$.

Consumers please read before you fork over your money to this attorney and by the way just because He's an attorney doesn't mean he's no more honest than his partner "Richard Murkey", if Mr. Murkey doesn't like his criminal past then maybe he can settle his criminal record like he settles his debts. You can try to prosecute for libel and slander with this post but unfortunately It's all true in regards to what I have to say. I'm five steps ahead of you.

I found this on The ZipDebt Blog. I hope once and for all this settles
this debate and puts it to rest. I hope this helps EVERYONE.



Debt Elimination A New Variation on an Old Scam



Regular readers of the ZipDebt Blog know that I routinely warn consumers about the notorious debt
elimination scam. This is the type of program where the promoters
claim that you never actually borrowed any money on those credit cards,
because wait for it your signature on the credit card application is
worth exactly as much money as the credit limit extended to you.
Essentially, the core of the argument made by these people is that
credit card debt is
not *real* money. Yet they are usually more than happy to accept payment
of their huge fee ($2,500 minimum, and usually a *lot* more) by having
you take a big cash advance against one of your credit cards with no
plan to repay it. Thats fraud, of course, but they dont seem to mind one little bit.



I write today about a new variation on this debt
elimination scam. I put new in quotes because this latest crop of
con-artists are promoting it as such, yet its really been around for a
very long time. The twist on the debt elimination scam is one where the company *takes over the debt
obligation itself*! They make the claim that through contractual law
procedure, they can use the banks own contracts to assume your debt
liability and then deploy their arsenal of secret legal tactics to
force the bank to discharge the obligation. Presto! Like magic, your debt is erased.



Its all still based on the bogus no money lent argument that has been
rejected repeatedly by the courts, and warned against by the Office of
the Comptroller of Currency. Lets see. Who should you believe? The
network marketing sales agent trying to make a buck off you, or an
agency that is part of the Federal Government? Tough call, right?



Anyway, this new variant on the debt
elimination scam is all wrapped up in legal-sounding jargon and
packaged into a very convincing sales pitch. But the notion of altering
the terms of the contract is not new at all. Its been around for years
and its called novation. Novation is nothing more than
the substitution of a new contract for an old contract, often involving a
change of parties to the transaction. Another relevant legal term is
assignment, where contractual rights are transferred outright from one
party to another.



The problem for the scammers is that novation requires that all parties to the contract must consent to the novation. And the banks have language in their agreements that precludes assignment of the debt to another party in the way that the debt elimination folks want. So how do they get the bank to agree to such a change? By using a technique called accord and satisfaction.



The way it works (in theory) is that you send the bank a payment with
restricted endorsement language. Thats where you write a bunch of
legal mumbo-jumbo on the back of the check, which basically says, If
you cash this, you agree to all these modified terms. The theory is
that this creates a brand new contract. The thinking is that the bank
will not catch this, since they process so many thousands of checks
every day. So the idea is to fool the bank into accepting the new
terms. Supposedly, you can build into the new contract all kinds of
clauses that work in your favor.



Accord & satisfaction, of and by itself, is not actually a scam. It
is a legitimate legal concept often used to settle contractual disputes
between parties. But the way its employed by debt elimination scammers is definitely bogus.
Most states have their own version of legislation that protects
creditors from such nonsense. In California, for example, you have to
send such a notice in the form of a letter, and it must be sent to the
corporate correspondence address, and NOT to a regular high-volume
payment center. Further, the creditor has up to 90 days to reject such a
payment and return it due to an unacceptable restriction on the
endorsement. So you cannot legitimately smoke this by a creditor and
expect any success thereby. Here is a link to the relevant California
Code on accord and satisfaction.



There was a debt
company called Briggs & Baker that got shut down by regulatory
authorities for routinely practicing this type of scam. Here is the FTC
press release that discusses official action against this pair of
thieves. It reads a lot like some of the complaints against debt settlement companies, but this outfit was basically practicing the accord and satisfaction
trick, obviously with very little success. Its only a matter of time
before the outfit peddling this latest incarnation of the debt
elimination scam gets a visit from their friendly state Attorney
Generals office or a legal team from the Federal Trade Commission.
Lets hope it happens sooner rather than later!