Certificate of Conformity in a Midland Lawsuit: How to Use It Against Them

Open the exhibits to a Midland Credit Management lawsuit and you may find a page called a certificate of conformity. It cites section 299-a of New York's Real Property Law. Your case is about a credit card. It is probably not in New York. And Brian Parker says New York itself stopped needing this certificate in 2024.

In the video below, Brian shows certificates from Midland cases in Florida, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. He explains what they fail to prove, and how to use them against the company suing you.

Key Takeaways

• A certificate of conformity vouches for how another affidavit was signed. It says nothing about your account.
• The form cites New York's Real Property Law, a rule for deeds, in credit card cases in other states.
• Do not lead with "real estate law does not apply." Argue that the affidavit lacks a business records foundation.
• Verify every signer. Look up the attorney with the state bar and the notary's commission.

It started with David's affidavit

In his last video, Brian interviewed David, the South Carolina member who fought Midland on three cards. David found it by reading the lawsuit. Midland's affidavit opened with "Plaintiff Midland Credit Management Inc. personally appearing before me." Brian asks how a billion-dollar corporation appears in person before anybody to be sworn. There was a signature, but no notary stamp.

That is the R in Brian's RACE framework: read the lawsuit. Then answer, file a counter affidavit, and do everything else.

Why Midland piles on paper

Brian commonly sees a Midland lawsuit carry an affidavit of sale or an affidavit of account, followed by a certificate of conformity. He calls it insecurity. The company keeps adding papers to back up the papers it already filed.

He compares it to a rock singer asked how he knew his solo work would succeed: throw enough at the wall and some of it sticks. Brian says the volume is on purpose. If you do not show up, the judge picks up a pound of paper and may assume it must be true.

Where the certificate comes from

Brian traces the form to New York. New York's rule on out-of-state affidavits, CPLR 2309(c), borrowed the standard for recording deeds in section 299-a of the Real Property Law. That law is about land. It has nothing to do with collecting a credit card debt.

Brian says New York dropped the need for the certificate in 2024. Since January 1, 2024, New York's CPLR 2106 (opens in a new tab) lets any person, wherever they are, sign an affirmation under penalty of perjury in place of a notarized affidavit. As Brian puts it, nobody told Midland that New York law does not govern a Montana or Michigan case, or that the certificate is not needed after 2024.

The certificates Brian found

Florida. An affidavit of sale says Synchrony Bank, formerly GE Capital, sold accounts to Midland. Brian says it does not name whose debt, when, or how much. A Florida attorney signed the certificate of conformity attached to it. The form reads "he/she," and it cites New York's real property law in a Florida case that has nothing to do with real property. The case was in January 2025. Brian shows another from June 2025, after the New York change, and one from 2021 by the same attorney. The footer of one affidavit carries a New York form number dated 2017.

Pennsylvania. The certificate again cites section 299-a. The attorney's signature has no printed name under it. Brian says that is purposeful: you cannot check whether the signer is even an attorney.

Kentucky. This attorney printed a name and a bar number. The certificate speaks of the "acknowledgement or proof of deeds of real property." There is no real property in the case. At the top are a contract ID, an addendum ID, and a document ID. The footer says Encore, Midland's parent company. Brian reads it as a document produced in batches under a vendor contract: sign here, sign here, no need to read.

What the certificate does not prove

Brian is direct about it. The certificate:

• does not prove you owe anything.
• does not prove your account was in the pool that was sold.
• does not prove a balance.
• does not prove the person who signed the affidavit knows a single thing about you.

Brian says this matters because if the affidavit fails, the whole case can fail. The extra paper is a positive for you. More documents mean more mistakes you can use against them.

Brian's checklist

1. Check every exhibit to the complaint or the motion for summary judgment. Is your name on the affidavit? Your account number? Your balance? Anything that connects your account to the pool sale?
2. Verify the people. Look up the certifying attorney in the state bar's member search. Look up the notary. Brian did foreclosure defense for years and found notaries who did not exist or had lost their license. He says he still finds problems today.
3. Compare the dates. Check each notary's commission dates against the signing dates. If a signature has no printed name, write that down.
4. Read for what the affidavit leaves out. Does it say "to the best of my knowledge" instead of personal knowledge? Personal knowledge is one of the requirements to get a hearsay document in as a business record.
5. Make the right argument. Do not lead with "real estate law does not apply." Argue the affidavit lacks foundation under your state's business records rule. Most states model that rule on Federal Rule of Evidence 803(6) (opens in a new tab). Then add that the certificate is a New York form about real estate that New York itself no longer requires.
6. Ask for the documents that connect you. In discovery, request the purchase and sale agreement, the forward flow agreement. Brian says it goes to the heart of what the debt collector does not want you to see.
7. Raise irregularities as questions. Mismatched names, changing signatures, the same people swapping roles as signer and notary. Brian's advice: do not point fingers, because the other side points back and it becomes two people pointing fingers. Ask a question instead. A question makes the judge ask it too.
8. Protect your deadlines. File your answer on time.

Midland's parent, Encore, has consent orders with federal and state regulators. Brian says some cover conduct like what he shows here, and that can support a counterclaim against the collector.

Scott, the Georgia member who beat LVNV, gave the same first step: read what was filed with the complaint, and what was not. Then set it down for a bit so you can think about it without emotion.

The cheat sheets give you the questions a judge may ask and how to answer them, so you can raise these points calmly at the hearing.

Found a certificate of conformity in your lawsuit? Talk to ParkerGPT about your defenses. It drafts the answer and the counter affidavit.