Home Depot And Their Collection Attorney's Shakedown Consumers

Miami handyman Glenn Rudge was falsely accused of shoplifting an $8 set of drill bits by Home Depot. When Rudge showed his receipt to prosecutors they dropped the charge. Rudge thought he'd settled the matter.

He was wrong. Home Depot hadn't got their collection attorney involved yet.

The next month Mr. Rudge got a letter from the Palmer Reifler law firm. Home Depot's lawyers demanded Rudge pay Home Depot over $3,000. They gave him 20 days to surrender the money.

Rudge ignored the demand. Then he got a letter demanding an additional $3,000, as "pre-litigation" attorney's fees, for a total of just over $6,000. If he didn't pay, the letter warned, the sheriff's office would be called.

Mr. Rudge was doing work for a lawyer and showed her the letters. "I took one look and said, 'This is outrageous,' " says the lawyer, Alison Harke. "These letters are designed to make people settle because they believe they are going to jail." She filed a suit against Home Depot.

A confidential settlement was reached.

But Home Depot isn't alone in partnering with collection attorneys to run shakedown scams.

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