Complaint Review: Bayview Law Group

In October of 2008 I contacted Bayview and talked to a Mr. Larry Van Woerkom. Mr. Van Woerkom was encouraging and assured me that I could resolve my debt issues, based on the information I gave him within four to five years. I was also informed of tax and credit consequences and so agreed to pay an initial fee of $1,054.60 and then a monthly fee of $955.60, which would be placed into an escrow account to accrue until an adequate amount could be accumulated to begin to pay off a reduced settlement on my debts. I approved the withdrawal of these funds from my primary bank account and the automatic withdrawals were made on November 4, 2008, December 4, 2008, January 5, 2009. Unfortunately, I was in more financial trouble than I thought and in February I asked if I could have Bayview not withdraw the funds until I could get straightened out. Mr. Van Woerkom asked me to fax him a letter asking this, and I did. I used moneys from my bank to pay some other debts, but Bayview attempted to withdraw the funds anyway and I ended up being penalized by my bank for insufficient funds. I talked to a person at Bayview and informed him of this problem, and during the month of March 2009, Bayview did not make a withdrawal, however I sent a letter again asking Bayview not to withdraw any funds for the month of April as well, and again, they ignored my request and again I had insufficient funds in my bank account. this also happened in May, at which time I was having a number of other serious financial problems so I contacted a person named Media at Bayview and informed her that I wanted to terminate my agreement with Bayview. Media was very kind but persistent and very much tried to talk me out of terminating, but finally agreed to take care of my request. She later called me and left a message indicating that my request was approved. By this time Bayview had withdrawn $4,750.42 from my bank account, which I had believed that approximately three thousand dollars would have been placed into an escrow account.

I made the request to terminate on May 25, 2009, and on Saturday, May 30 I received an envelope, hand written from Crowder/Bayview, 350 S. Figueroa, Street, #190, Los Angeles, CA with a check made out to me from a Wells Fargo Bank account min the amount of eight hundred and twenty-nine dollars and two cents, with a memo notation of 386 williams refund Bay View Law Trust. The check had a signature which appears to be Suzanne Eisen... My current circumstance is that my wife and I are filing for bankruptcy, which has been a difficult route to tread, but we received some very good counseling and can at least see some way out of this mess. My sense is that Bayview has simply found a way to rip off people who are already down and out and are willing to trust them.

Ron
Pottstown, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.