Most importantly, McCarthy Law is a real law firm able to help its clients negotiate debt for a fraction of what they owe. The debt settlement industry is riddled with non-lawyers who offer to settle your debts. The problem is that because they are not lawyers, the help a non-lawyer debt settlement company can provide is woefully limited in at least two important ways.

First, some major creditors refuse to negotiate with a non-lawyer who attempts to settle debts for another. The creditor simply will not negotiate with a non-lawyer to settle a debt. What does that mean for you? It means that the non-lawyer cannot settle all of your debt. McCarthy Law, as your lawyer, can work with any creditor. To date, no creditor has refused to deal with McCarthy Law. We are lawyers; as a result, we can deal with all of your creditors. When families struggling with too much debt understand the many advantages of working with a lawyer, accepting a piecemeal solution from a non-lawyer debt settlement company seems crazy.

Second, non-lawyer debt settlement firms are completely unable to help once a lawsuit has been filed.

Our clients rarely get sued if they come to us before they are sued by any of their creditors. But it happens. Since the Trump administration, we see more and more lawsuits filed by the major credit card companies. It’s a sign of the times. For us, when a client gets sued, it’s a bummer, but it’s part of the settlement process. We settle cases all the time after our clients get sued and we most often settle them before judgment. It’s because we can defend a debt lawsuit. Our clients often have counter-claims they are not even aware of until we begin discussing their case.

Non-lawyer debt settlement firms are completely unable to help once a lawsuit has been filed. They can’t defend the client in court against the creditor because they are not lawyers and often the creditor’s lawyers will not speak with anyone with the debt settlement company regarding settlement for the same reason. We have heard that the debt settlement companies will often allow the creditors to obtain a judgment against the client and then seek to settle it afterward. It can depend on the facts and circumstances, but we at McCarthy Law set as our goal the settlement of all debts before a judgment can be obtained.

Most debt settlement companies expect to earn their fee regardless of how well or how poorly they performed in settling your debts. We think that is terrible. Taking fees from those least able to afford it even though you weren’t successful in obtaining a favorable settlement seems unconscionable to us.

At McCarthy Law, we aren’t comfortable taking money from a client unless we bring value to the client by saving them significant money on the amount of settlement vs. the amount originally owed. We put our money where our mouth is.

In most types of consumer debt situations in which our client hasn’t been sued, we offer minimum standards of performance. If we don’t get a creditor to offer a sufficient discount to settle our clients’ debt, we waive our right to a fee.

We charge a small retainer to begin representation based on our client’s needs and circumstances. In addition, we charge the client a percentage of the debt they enroll.

We assert that our fees are lower than anyone else in the industry, including non-lawyer debt settlement companies, but we will match them if you find someone cheaper. We are always willing to take a look at our fees in light of new information.