HELP!!! My fiancée and I fell for it and paid the debt that the letter indicated. Now that we have done our research, we realized that this Waldman guy is a scam! What we are most concerned about is that this delinquency is now going to reflect on his credit report. Any help will help!!!

Looks like Deanna Natalie passed on her scam to this sucker because her law firm has too many complaints.

Nothing new here folks, just more fake statement of claim notices. I tell everyone who has received that fake document to be glad you got one, because it is illegal under the debt collections act to send out misleading court documents. If they decide to sue you, you can use that letter for your advantage. Just show the judge that letter. The judge will not be amused.

The argument surrounding lawyers not bound to the collection agencies act is pretty messy and in a grey area. The fake court documents are accompanied by a personal letter from the law firm making an effort to collect the debt on behalf of the collection agency. Leave the collections to the collections agency who is authorized to collect a debt! Their job should be solely litigation. Since the law firm is not a collection agency, this is a violation of the collection agencies act. And because the letter states that they are working on "BEHALF" (the key word) of the collection agency, the collection agency is liable for what the lawyer sends, which is why sending misleading and fake court documents can get the law office into hot water.

Just did a quick Google search of the complete address for :

Howard L. Waldman
1490 Denison Street
Markham, ON
L3R 9T7

Second hit was for Global Collections' Facilities page:
http://www.globalintl.net/Facilities.aspx

His name shows up on LinkedIn, but with no details other than :

Howard Waldman

Owner, Self
Toronto, Canada Area | Law Practice

Current:
Owner at Self

Education:

So, it looks very much like a self-proclaimed "lawyer" is working out of the Global Collections offices..

Edit: Looks like he has been rated on LawyerRatingz.com:
http://www.lawyerratingz.com/ratings/9942/Lawyer+Howard-Waldman.html

Supposedly a Real Estate lawyer, but he hasn't been rated very highly.

We just got the same letter too however it's with a company we've never dealth with asking for over $300.00

This is seriously concerning when protecting a perfect credit score.

From my investigation this is what I've found.

Trying to contact an individual at the following numbers listed for:

Howard L. Waldman
1490 Denison Street, Suite A (Apple Canada Inc.
Markham, ON L3R9T7
email hlw@waldmanlawoffice.com (no reply)

The Law Society lists no Howard Waldman

ICANN information on WALDMANLAWOFFICE.COM is deliberately useless

Toll Free 1.877.330.1817 (Only voicemail)
Tel 1.905.413.8593 (Only voicemail)
Fax 1.905.413.8523 (Doesn't stop ringing)

Because I have a legal plan that allows me to have the offending party contacted either on phone or stern letter at no charge I had contacted my legal provider Mills & Mills in Toronto.

Their initial assesment is the police need to handle this right away but in my experience they will likely pass it off as a civil matter.

PS We can all thank Dalton McGuinty for changing laws in favor of dirty collection's companies

"On March 30, 2011, three weeks before lawyer Deanna Natale, was to set a date for a disciplinary hearing in connection with her law firm’s use of draft statement of claims. the Liberal Government at Queen’s Park repealed the Ontario Debt Collectors Act, a law that would appear to have prohibited collection agencies from hiring lawyers to send out draft statement of claims to Ontario residents. Some observers are curious about the timing of the repeal of the Ontario Debt Collectors Act. Some people might think the Liberal Government at Queen’s Park repealed the Ontario Debt Collectors Act to assist Deanna Natale, who has close ties to the Liberal Party."

In the end, there is little protection we have as consumers to protect our credit that can be held hostage to what ammounts to an act of extortion.

This will only continue to get worse as Canadian politicians continue to cozy up to money and corporate interests such as we see with Bill C-38, CETA and so on.

Welcome to Canada

From watching an episode of CBC's Marketplace, I was informed differently. I also notice her name is on the letter featured at 13:50 here:

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2011/debtcollectordread/

One would think their information would be correct as they show this forum not long after. They claim law firms are not covered under the same laws as debt collection firms?

There is NO LOOPHOLE allowing lawyers to send a bogus "Statement of Claim" to a debtor. Why do you think Deanna Natale, a lawyer, who was acting on behalf of Global Credit and Collections and sending out dozens of these phony claims to debtors, was called before the Law Society of Upper Canada to answer to these accusations? She was to appear in January,2011 before a panel of her peers at the LSUC but instead decided to close her practice effective February 28, 2011. Had she been found guilty of these practices, she would have lost her licence. She no longer acts as legal counsel for Global Credit and Collections.

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Educating one Consumer at a time

For me, nothing. Didn't respond and haven't heard anything since.

There's a law against collections agencies sending out court looking documents, but there's a loophole allowing lawyers to do so. This is likely the result. It is merely a scare tactic to get your to contact them.

i recently got a very similar letter... did anything come of it?

Hi guys, maybe you can help me out with what to do based on what I got in the mail. I got a letter apparently from a Barrister and Solicitor by the name of Howard L. Waldman claiming to be the lawyer for this Global Collections agency. They're claiming that I owe them ~$1k over a past Rogers debt. They do not have my phone number and are going based on my address. Also the contact email for this Howard L. Waldman (hlw@waldmanlawoffice.com) is listed. When I check the website waldmanlawoffice.com, it is parked and further investigation shows the domain being in fact registered to Global Collections. I believe this is misrepresentation at the very least.

From what I've read about Global, this looks fishy as hell. The letter is basically worded to scare me about legal action, but at the bottom as a requiem, it's listed that I still have opportunity to call Global and they are more than willing to deal with me. This doesn't make any sense.

I'm not sure what to do about this. I would ignore it, but you guys seem to have a good bearing on what to do. I know I defaulted on a Rogers account a few years back, but the money owed would be nowhere near $1k.

Any advice appreciated.