Nationwide Legal Services Explained
Nationwide Legal Services is a nationwide provider of in-person legal and business support services to law firms, corporations, and government entities throughout the country. They have a network of over 16,000 licensed and experienced process servers that support discovery depositions, witness interviews in pending litigation, as well as routine document and pleadings filing and service of process. They continually support their broadly diversified client base across the country by serving thousands of subpoenas or summons a month on behalf of their clients.
Nationwide Legal Services is a full service legal support company with more than a decade of experience assisting the legal community. Their vendors can provide an array of services; including trial preparation , jury assistance, facility support services, certified record retrieval, regulatory research, electronic filing and e-Court, mass tort coordination, non-attorney orchestration of call centers, mobile and on-site printing and duplicating, trailers, computer hardware and software, audio/visual, biometrics, security, thermography, and project management for any size legal project. The company has a network of hundreds of translators nationwide, including legal interpreters and stenographers. Nationwide Legal Services provides this extensive range of legal support services through companies across the country that are known for promptness, consistency, and reliability.
Reasons They May Be Calling You
If someone from Nationwide Legal Services has contacted you directly, they may be relying on a signed retainer agreement or a waiver to the attorney-client privilege. We would always advise the client to only pick up the phone for the representatives of that company if the client is facing litigation in Maryland and service of process via a nationwide legal service is required. Let’s examine the few reasons someone from a nationwide legal service might be calling you.
Typical Reasons Someone from a Nationwide Legal Service Might Call You:
You owe money to one of our clients. This is a big one, as it is very likely most companies who use a company to service out-of-state debts and past due accounts will use a nationwide legal service to both serve the complaint and follow up with the debtor.
You are a party to a legal dispute. Sometimes attorneys are hired and battle a lawsuit over the phone. Please remember that an attorney is always trying to collect their fee, and just because you owe a company money, doesn’t mean that this company will not try to secure their legal fees. It is always better to put it in writing during settlement conference or mediation, because otherwise, your attorney may chase non-payment in court.
You are being served process for a lawsuit. A lot of collection companies are smart enough to rely on a nationwide legal service to serve process, as the collection company itself may be based out of state. They do this to protect against allegations that they are actually coming after you in an unauthorized manner. Service of process is technical and generally not malicious. This applies to most matters. If you are being sued by a company you do business with routinely, or are facing a breach of contract lawsuit where the other party claims they did work at your household but never rescinded their offer to do the work, you could be a target for a real lawsuit. Service of process might occur by facsimile, regular mail, or even poor service on behalf of the process server.
How to Validate the Call
Before taking any further action, it is important to verify that the entity or individual that contacted you is legitimate.
1. Be Cautious of Unknown Numbers
Only talk to individuals or businesses who have a legitimate business reason to contact you. As a general rule, you should never provide anyone your personal information unless you are doing business with them.
2. Confirm Contact Information
Research the individual or company who contacted you and find a legitimate phone number associated with them. Try to talk to the actual individual who called you to confirm that the call was genuine. Keep a written record of who you speak with and when.
3. Get Credible References
Ask the individual for the names of three people at the same company who are familiar with the matter.
4. Don’t Give Out Personal Information to Verify Identity
There is a high likelihood that the caller is a scam artist. Be sure to protect your personal information, and do not provide it to anyone to verify your identity. For obvious reasons, you should not have to provide any information to any company who needs to talk to you.
5. Nobody Wants Your Data
A disclaimer for public companies begets mentioning again in this post: your data is not worth anything as an individual and nobody else wants your data. Your data is safe in your computer and does not need to be delivered to anyone to be protected. Rest assured that if there is a legitimate need for you to provide your personal data to anyone, they will be able to do it without you providing it to them. Do not interact with, or provide any personal information to, anyone who does not have a legitimate business case to receive your data.
6. Reporting
The next step is to report the caller. If you received a telephone call, you can register your complaint with the National Do Not Call Registry. If you received a text message or email, you should forward the message to the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") at [email protected]. If you receive an unsolicited fax, you should include your contact information and fax the message to the FTC at 202-492-2244.
Finally, if you believe that your data has been used inappropriately, report it to the Identity Theft Clearinghouse at 1-800-908-4490 (or fax to 1-304-354-4119).
What to Do if They Call
Steps to Take After Receiving a Call from Nationwide Legal Services
Once you have received a call from Nationwide Legal Services, it is important to clearly document who called you and when. This should include the name of the person who called, what number they called from, and what the nature of their call was . If the individual who called you from Nationwide Legal Services made any threats, or made representations as to something that may happen to you, it is important to make note as to what those were. When in doubt, it is always important to seek legal advice prior to what steps you take, as a lawyer may be able to help you determine whether or not you should take further action. If a debt or legal issue is raised during the call, it is also important to seek legal advice in this instance as well.
What Do You Need To Know
Your legal rights when a nationwide legal services law firm calls you are governed by both federal and state laws. At the state level, you have the right to use the method of legal services that you believe is appropriate for your situation. Federal law provides a broader range of rights that regulate how a legal services law firm may contact you if they are not a direct attorney hired by you. The federal law that protects you in this situation is the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).
Under the FDCPA, the law firm must advise you either in person or in writing who they work for, the purpose of their call and whether or not those calls are recorded. You also have the right to stop them from contacting you, ceasing to call nor send emails.
You cannot be harassed or threatened by an employee of a legal services law firm. From their initial call to you until the point that you retain their services, they have very strict legal ethical obligations. If they violate these ethical requirements, then you can sue them for damages. Of course, if you are retained by them after this initial contact, then it’s a whole new ball game.
When to Hire Professional Legal Services
If you have been contacted by one of these services, the circumstances in which it might be advisable to have an attorney or law firm involved include the following: 1) If there are strict legal time limits that may limit your ability to file a claim, or file other required documents. These are called Statutes of Limitation in a civil (can be extended in certain circumstances – see now). 2) If the amount of recovery at stake is significant enough to warrant professional legal representation regardless. 3) If the claims being pursued are complicated or the law is not clear on issues involved. 4) If the subject matter involves state or local laws that differ significantly from California law 5) If you have a contract with any of these legal service companies that says you must arbitrate or litigate any claims or disagreements with them exclusively in another states’ venue, this generally means you must go to those states to do so….and that is a huge inconvenience because travel costs & time away from work, etc……..some of these law firm scams like Yoselin & Rezev (Y&R) for example have forum selection clauses, or have used forums with improper venue like Crowe & Mulvey in Brooks v Cummings. (See, Cummings v. Yoselin & Rezev, LLP (2017) 14 Cal.App.5th 341. See also, top of front page of www.CaliforniaFinancialLawBlog.com and www.CaliforniaEmploymentLawReport.com ). For example, all of us can file California lawsuits in California courts . Even if born and raised in another state, federal court cases for these nationwide claims should also be brought in the proper district court in California. And not in Texas, District of Columbia, or other higher courts. So, if you’re a California resident, employers and other defendants would likely try to argue improper venue for the actions brought outside of California in these examples. But, response to this diversion tendency argument is that California residents often do business and violate California labor law here. So, forum selection clauses shouldn’t apply. In conclusion, it depends on the details. Factors include the location at which the dispute happened, the underlying claims involved, the amount of potential recovery at stake, and other factors…..so when contacted or solicited by these nationwide outfits, ask them about it too. They may say, you don’t need a lawyer and tell you to ‘just sign this retainer agreement’ or something like that. But, since you found out about it, at least consider what’s best for you, as the person who experienced what you experienced, and not just what these people with a vested interest in your signing on with them tell you to do. Odds are, based on similar past experiences and the current state of the law, most of you will be better off not hiring a mass tort type law firm and instead hiring an attorney who is a good fit for you and your specific situation.