Judge DENIES Petition to Confirm MBNA Credit Card Arbitration Award

Debt collector CACV of Colorado, through its attorneys and fellow debt collectors Neuheisel Law Firm and Deborah Harvego, sued my client in San Diego Superior Court, petitioning the Court to confirm an approximately $25,000 arbitration award obtained through the National Arbitration Forum for an alleged credit card debt with MBNA. 

During the arbitration process, my client received a notice that the arbitration proceedings had been stayed by NAF at the request of CACV.  My client received nothing further until being served with the lawsuit to confirm the award.  CACV was not able to put forth sufficient, admissible evidence to convince the Court that my client indeed actually received any proper notices subsequent to the stay, and therefore DENIED CACV's petition.  The Court expressed concern over proper notices in the arbitration process in all the cases he was frequently seeing involving CACV, NAF, and MBNA.

Had the Court granted the petition and confirmed the award, CACV would have had an enforceable court judgment against my client.  Unfortunately, most consumers have no idea that (a) they can fight this type of lawsuit and (b) there are lawyers out there that will take these types of cases.

My good friend Bud Hibbs has a wealth of information on CACV here and Neuheisel here.  For information on the arbitration process, which is severely harming consumers by taking away consumer access to the courts, see this press release by the National Consumer Law Center.