Johnson Law Group Took $3,420.53 Of Our Money And Closed. Affiliated With US Mortgage Funding Las Vegas, Nevada

Our credit cards had raised our interest rates to the point where we were practically unable to make our monthly payments. We were advised back in May of 2009 by someone working for another division of US Mortgage to utilize the law firm, Johnson Law Group, located in Nevada, to help us settle our credit card debt. At the time, we were still making our monthly payments, but just barely getting by, due to loss of business.

We were told Johnson Law Group would work with our creditors to reduce the total amount owed on each credit card. We were to open a savings account and deposit a certain amount of money each month and after a period of 3 years, we would have accumulated enough funds to pay off each of our 3 high interest rate cards. They told us if, during that 3 year period, we were offered a decent deal with one of our creditors, we may be able to pay off the account early if we had the funds available. Our credit card debt totaled $26,962.30 between all three credit cards. Their fee for handling our case was $3,463.14.

We were told to stop paying on the accounts and keep a log of the collection calls that started coming in and send the phone numbers to them so they could issue cease and desist letters to them. We were then to deposit $442.19 each month. For the first 3 months, they withdrew $396.31 - $346.31 of which was for service fees and $50 in monthly fees. After three months, they withdrew $223.16. They withdrew this amount monthly from 8/25/2009 - 5/25/2010. In June of 2010, we received a letter from Johnson Law Group saying they were closing. They gave us the option of having one of two other law firms handle our case including Johnson Law Group in Florida. We decided we should probably go with the Johnson Law Group down here. They told us that they do things differently. Whatever money we were to be putting into our account would be completely pulled out by them. It sounded a little sketchy to me, so I asked how I could go about getting a refund. They told me I was not entitled to a refund, but they would continue handling our settlement and charge us the remaining amount of what we originally owed Johnson Law Group in Nevada.

I went online and saw new laws the FTC has put in place for debt settlement companies. I read that no company should be taking any money up front for this service. I also googled Johnson Law Group, Nevada and they are all over Ripoffreport.com (wish I had known about that site back in 2009). Now, we are out of a debt settlement company and the creditors have law offices calling us in regards to our debt. We don't have any idea what to do.