CHARLESTON — A Kanawha County man is suing a debt collector for allegedly using false, deceptive and misleading tactics to collect money owed on a credit card.
Mark Tscherne filed a lawsuit Feb. 11 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia against The Offices of Rockwell Copeland & Roth LLC, alleging violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
According to the complaint, the defendant called Tscherne and his wife several times in 2015, threatening to sue him if he did not settle the account with HSBC. However, the suit says, the threats were made under false pretenses because the defendant is not licensed to collect debt in West Virginia and in all but one phone call, never admitted it was a debt collector.
Tscherne seeks a jury trial, statutory damages of $1,000, plus litigation costs and other compensatory damages. He is represented by attorney Daniel K. Armstrong of Klein & Sheridan LC in Hurricane.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia Case number 2:16-cv-01490