....NPR features a news piece that shows how aggressive collectors have become using assignment practices, questionable service and notice procedures [See: http://www.npr.org/2011/12/12/143274773/unpaid-bills-land-some-debtors-behind-bars].
....Although debtors' prisons are illegal across the country, a Wall Street Journal study found that more than a third of all states in the U.S. allow borrowers who can't or won't pay to be jailed — including those states where debtors' prisons are explicitly prohibited by state constitutions.
....A report by the American Civil Liberties Union found that people were imprisoned even when the cost of doing so exceeded the sum total of the debt they owed. In the city of New Orleans, for example, the sheriff pays $22.39 per day for each detainee held in the Orleans Parish Prison. Sean Matthews, a homeless construction worker, was incarcerated for five months for $498 of legal debt in 2009. Matthews' jail time cost the city $3,201.77 — more than six times the amount he owed -- I guess that is one way to justify building or buying more jail space!
....I have personally seen assignments of debt that can't be proven, gutter service and sham prove-up proceedings--which require between first appearance and motion fees and minimum attorney fee time, between $1,500 and $2,000, with little or no recourse except to try and vacate the judgment and set the case, if successful for trial, which involves further time and expense.
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