Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Wisconsin

You certainly can sue the debt settlement company if they have breached their contract with you or done anything else which is improper or illegal. However, they are entitled to a reasonable fee for their services which is typically based upon a percentage of funds disbursed to the creditors. While some debt settlement companies are reputable, others are little more than scams, applying the vast majority of funds received from clients to their own fees rather than paying any creditors. Such businesses are also substantially unregulated, meaning that virtually anybody can call themselves a debt settlement company and advertise their services. There is effectively no way to verify which of these two camps they might fall into. For this reason, most people are better off having licensed professionals such as lawyers or certified public accounting firms handle such matters for them. Chapter 13 bankruptcies or Wisconsin voluntary assignments to creditors under chapter 128 accomplish the same thing as debt settlement companies but also carry the force of law which limits the rights of creditors to refuse participation, unlike the settlement companies who must talk all of the creditors into participating before their plans will work. Many of my bankruptcy clients come to me after they have already wasted many thousands of dollars with failed debt settlement plans when they could have saved a great deal of money by declaring bankruptcy sooner rather than later after the settlement plan fell apart. My comments in this public web forum are offered only for general public educational purposes and are not legal advice directed toward you; nor do they create an attorney client relationship between us. However, you are welcome to contact my Racine office to discuss retaining me or to set up a free initial consultation.