BOSTON (Legal Newsline) – Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is suing Lustig, Glaser & Wilson PC (the Lustig Firm) over allegations the company repeatedly filed lawsuits against consumers for debts they did not owe.
Healey alleges that the company violated Massachusetts’ consumer protection laws. Filed in Suffolk Superior Court, the complaint claims that the company’s owners, Kenneth Wilson and Ronald Lustig, filed more than 100,000 debt collection lawsuits in the state based on inaccurate information since 2011. Many consumers targeted have only Social Security or other types of income legally exempt from court-ordered payment. The Lustig Firm had obtained judgments in excess of $125 million against state residents.
“We allege that this firm and its owners took advantage of thousands of Massachusetts consumers by demanding money they had no right to collect and on the basis of debts they could not prove,” Healey said. “The company used the judicial system to intimidate and harass people, and we are working hard to make sure that this kind of conduct ends and that the company and its owners are held accountable.”
The attorney general’s office is seeking injunctive relief, restitution to consumers and civil penalties.