Consumer Law Associates
Consumer Law Associates (CLA) is a national law firm dedicated to consumer debt reduction. They provide debt settlement services nationwide as well as bankruptcy and work closely with many of the nation’s top debt settlement companies to handle their clients in states in which an attorney is required for debt settlement. At first glance at their BBB record, one might think that Consumer Law Associates is a company to steer clear of, however, we dig a lot deeper than most to uncover the real story behind every company in our focus industry…
The BBB currently reports an F rating with 16 complaints, but the important thing to note here is that Consumer Law Associates is not a paying member of the BBB. As we have noted in many of our reviews, there is obvious preferential treatment for BBB members (see review on Care Once Credit where they have over 170 complaints with an A rating). What most people are unaware of is that the BBB has a policy in most states to rate all “non-member” debt settlement companies with a “D-” rating right out of the gate. From there, they subtract more points for complaints. Since the BBB has no way to know how many clients a particular company has, they make a company look bad with even as little as a few complaints.
Now ask yourself this question, “Which of the below companies would you rather work with?”:
- A company that has over 2,000 active clients and 16 complaints
- A company with 300 active clients and 7 complaints
According to the BBB the company with 16 complaints has an F rating, and the one with 7 complaints is rated B. The company with 16 complaints is Consumer Law Associates and the real story is that the BBB ratings are not worth anything and can easily steer a consumer away from a good company. 16 complaints out of 2,000 clients is less than a 1% complaint ratio and is a great record by any standard. Especially given that the debt settlement industry tends to have a lot of complaints since it deals directly with consumers in high-stress situations. The real value of seeing complaint listed with the BBB is to see how the company is handling them. If you see a large number of unhandled complaints, or complaints that were not responded to for a long period of time, that would be of concern. As you can see on CLA’s BBB report, they make a practice of promptly dealing with all complaints.
Furthermore, in reading through not only the complaints on the BBB, but also the ones listed on the Internet and with ripoffreport.com, the majority of the complaints are due to the clients not understanding the program in which they were enrolled. This means that they most likely were not listening, did not read the contract, or were misled by a debt consultant. If they were misled by a debt consultant this is to no fault of CLA since most of their clients are sent to them from other provider companies. In addition, many of the complaints aimed at CLA were actually complaints against a few of the larger debt settlement companies that refer clients to CLA and have nothing to do with the CLA law firm.
In contacting some of our contacts with TASC and USOBA (two industry organizations that lobby for the debt settlement industry), the reputation of CLA is quite remarkable and they are quickly becoming one of the pillars in the industry. Also because they are a law firm, consumers have some additional protections in place since attorneys and law firms are heavily governed by the BAR Associations.
Our conclusion is quite simply that Consumer Law Associates (CLA) offers a very solid debt settlement program and we have seen no evidence that justifies the poor rating assigned by the Better Business Bureau. I would feel badly for a consumer who decides against working with CLA based solely on their unfair BBB rating and a handful of misdirected complaints. They are certainly among the Top 10 debt settlement companies.
On March 18, 2009 ChoiceREVU Editor wrote:
Please read the complete review above for an explanation of the high marks we are giving Consumer Law Associates. We cannot emphasize enough how important it is for consumers to understand a little more behind the scenes of the debt management industry before making a decision about a company. It is very clear that you cannot make an educated decision based on BBB ratings.
On March 27, 2009 Robert L. Cooper wrote:
If what you have printed is the truth then this is a service that we americans can use. Unfortnately, the “truth” has become arbitary and very elusive. Sadly the verification process is very time consuming and often not revealing.
On March 27, 2009 ChoiceREVU Editor wrote:
Robert – we have a very extensive research process that we do on each company in a particular industry, however, we can only do our best to uncover the truth based on information we have access to. I hope you have found our information to be at least helpful in making your decision.
On April 28, 2009 Lucas wrote:
I did quite a bit of research through out the Debt Settlement industry calling company after company before I decided on Consumer Law Associates.I found most companies charge 15% as a retainer fee compared to Consumer Law Associates who charges much less then any other Debt Settlement company and is a real law firm. They took the time to explain the exact process of working with my creditors and answered every question I could think of.
I’m very happy with my choice and felt very comfortable when my assigned attorney contacted me to review the program after my first payment. A+ Rating by me!!
On July 24, 2009 Consumer Law Associates (CLA) » Debt Settlement News wrote:
[...] http://debtconsolidationservices.choicerevu.com/consumer-law-associates/ [...]
On October 13, 2009 Tony wrote:
I have never been involved with as much desperation as i am now and i didnt know where to turn or what was going to happen. I was home and an ad itrigued me to try and call for some relief on not only the debt i accumulated but the relief of some of the most unbelievable stress you could imagine. Consume Law Associates MADE SURE I UNDERSTOOD EVERYTHING CLEARLY AND I KNEW EXACTLY WHAT WAS REQUIRED There job was done professionally and correctly. I would recommend anyone with financial stress to at least attempt a call and give this strong company achance to get your life back together.
On January 10, 2010 Lynn wrote:
I started the process with these folks and they treated me exceptionally. I was not able to continue to contribute to my trust to settle debt but I have nothing but possitive things to say about these folks. They worked with me 100%. 85% of my funds were returned when I could not continue to contribute and ultimetly had to file bankruptcy. These are good folks. the customer service folks are awesome. They explained things until I understood. They soothed my stressed out soul with encouragement and support. I knew I was in good hands, I just did not have enough income left after husband lost his job to settle any debt. I tried hard and they tried harder.