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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Extreme Claim Against Extreme Debt Hound

LITTLE ROCK (CN) - A veterinarian accuses a debt collector of using "extortionate means" and racketeering by calling his clients to tell them to ask him "to pay his debts."

Robert Wadley says his Mayflower, Ark. veterinary practice lost significant business because of the "extortionate behavior."

He sued Williams & Fudge and its employee "Chad" on Tuesday in Federal Court.

Williams & Fudge, based in South Carolina, specializes in collecting on student loans.

Wadley has degrees from the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine and Emory University, according to his website.

He claims that Williams & Fudge somehow got the unlisted number of a client, and that Chad called her in August 2014 and "told this individual to inform plaintiff Wadley to pay his debts."

"Defendant Chad called this individual at a private and unlisted number. Upon information and belief, defendants' communication with this individual caused this individual to terminate her business relationship with plaintiff Wadley," the vet says in his complaint.

He claims that Chad called other clients and potential clients "in an attempt to bully and embarrass plaintiff Wadley into paying his debts."

"Defendants' behavior was designed to send a message: pay your debts or else we continue to contact your clients and destroy your business," the complaint states. When an attorney asked Chad how he identified Wadley's clients, he "simply stated he had his methods," Wadley says. Then he became "hostile, vulgar and verbally abusive."

Wadley says the collections methods were not only illegal, they cost him "significant business ... anxiety, stress, fear, severe emotional distress, and severe embarrassment."

He demands punitive damages for RICO violations, violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, privacy invasion, intentional inflectional of emotional distress, and tortious interference.

Williams & Fudge CEO Robert Perrin did not reply to a request for comment.

The company's website, checked Thursday morning, says: "Our goal is to assist colleges and universities in achieving and maintaining low default rates for all campus based federal and private loan programs. Williams & Fudge's professional approach to collections is designed to maximize the recovery of lost monies for the loan programs and institutional receivables."

Wadley is represented by J.R. Andrews of Little Rock.

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