Consumers are sued for credit card debts every day. In New York City alone, hundreds of these cases are filed each business day with every county’s civil courts.

Part of what I do is defend these cases. Why? Because so often the plaintiff is a debt buyer and the defendant, a consumer, in unable to determine (a) who they owed the money to; (b) if they are responsible for payment of the debt; (c) whether the account was rightfully sold; and (d) whether the debt is valid.

The newest tactic is arbitration, when a credit card issuer submits the claim to “binding arbitration.” The consumer wakes up one day to find that there has been a finding of liability, and runs to a lawyer to file for bankruptcy.

Often a bankruptcy filing is justified, but sometimes it isn’t. Even if bankruptcy is the proper avenue, it’s important for the lawyer to review the pre-petition judgments to make sure that no violations of the debtor’s state and/or federal rights have occurred.

If the lawyers fails to do so then the right of recovery - which may be significant - are lost forever due to non-scheduling on the bankruptcy papers.

I submit to you the case of MBNA America Bank, N.A. v. Nelson, 15 Misc.3d 1148(A), Slip Copy, 2007 WL 1704618 (N.Y.City Civ.Ct, 2007).

MBNA America Bank, N.A. brought an action in Richmond County Civil Court to confirm, pursuant to CPLR § 7510, an arbitration award issued in the amount of $9,459.70. In suport of the action MBNA provided an affidavit from an employee, a copy of the “Credit Agreement Additional Terms and Conditions,” indicating that the agreement was subject to arbitration, a copy of the “Notice of Arbitration,” proof of service of process by a process server of the arbitration claim, a copy of the code of procedure for the National Arbitration Forum, and a copy of a signed arbitration award.

The Court refused to confirm the arbitration award because the petition brought by MBNA lacked all of the following: Allegation and proof of the Petitioner’s legal status, and whether it is authorized to do business in New York, in accordance with New York law; Complete copy of the actual retail credit contract, including any subsequent amendments, alleged to have been entered into between the Petitioner and the Respondent; Affidavit establishing Respondent received notice of the alleged agreement, including any subsequent amendments; Objective proof that the alleged agreement, and any amendments, issued by Petitioner are binding on Respondent; Allegation and proof that the arbitration award was affirmed; Submission of the calculations used by the arbitrator to arrive at the final award, the specific claims submitted by Petitioner for arbitration and the claims ruled upon by the arbitrator; Current and complete non-military affidavit.

So what happens now? I’d say that the consumer may want to speak with a lawyer about his or her rights against MBNA and their lawyers, Wolpoff & Abramson, L.L.P. in bringing what is clearly a bogus case.