Last week, a Missouri jury awarded about a quarter-million dollars in compensatory and $82 million in punitive damages to a woman who was hounded for over a year by debt collector Portfolio Recovery Associates for a $1100 debt that wasn’t hers. The problem, according to the plaintiff’s lawyer, is the debt collector tries to collect without supporting documentation; the lawyer noted that the state attorney general has received numerous complaints of P.R.A. going after the wrong person.
The Kansas City Star has the story.