Who is suing you · Midland Credit Management, Inc.
Three regulators made robo-signing findings against Midland.
Midland Credit Management, Inc. is the collection business of Encore Capital Group, Inc., a Delaware company listed on the NASDAQ as ECPG and run from San Diego. It buys charged-off consumer debt, mostly credit card accounts, from banks, credit unions, retailers and other creditors, and it sues on that debt in its own name.
Encore Capital Group FY2025 annual report · Updated August 2026
All seven debt buyers, and what applies to every one of them
The chain your debt traveled
- Encore Capital Group, Inc.
- Midland Funding, LLC
- Midland Credit Management, Inc.
This is not a chain of sales. It is who is who. Encore Capital Group is the listed parent in San Diego. Midland Funding, LLC bought the accounts and was the name on the older lawsuits, including the one the Supreme Court decided in 2017. Midland Credit Management is the collection business, and it is the name on the newer ones: in 2025 we counted 226 federal dockets naming Midland Credit Management against 27 naming Midland Funding. State courts are a different story, and Massachusetts still counted Midland Funding among its largest filers in 2025. We found no document dissolving Midland Funding, so we will not tell you it is gone. Read the caption of your own complaint. The name there is the plaintiff, and the plaintiff has to prove it owns your account.
The government record
- 2015
- The CFPB ordered Encore and its Midland subsidiaries to refund up to $42 million to consumers, to pay a $10 million penalty, and to stop collecting on over $125 million of debts. The Bureau found robo-signed court filings, affidavits that misrepresented a review of the original account documents, lawsuits on debts too old to sue on, and calls before 8am and after 9pm.files.consumerfinance.gov
- 2018
- More than 35 states and the District of Columbia settled with Encore and Midland on 4 December 2018, over robo-signed affidavits and suits on unverified debt. Midland agreed to pay $6 million to the states, plus $25,000 per state toward consumer funds, and not to resell the debts it bought for two years. Georgia’s own release reports about 5,136 Georgia consumers and $8,729,180 of judgments eliminated or reduced. The state releases do not agree on how many jurisdictions signed, so we print the count they all support.law.georgia.gov
- 2020
- The CFPB sued the same companies again and a federal court entered a stipulated judgment on 16 October 2020: a $15 million penalty and $79,308.81 of redress to 14 consumers. The penalty is about 189 times the redress. The Bureau alleged they sued without the documentation the 2015 order required, left out the disclosures that order required on time-barred debt, and failed to provide loan documents on request. The same order terminated the 2015 consent order.files.consumerfinance.gov
- 2022
- The Massachusetts attorney general announced $12 million of relief from Encore and its subsidiaries on 20 September 2022, including a $4.5 million payment. Midland agreed to stop collecting on more than 4,200 debts worth about $7.5 million that it had placed with the Daniels Law Office, where the judgments could not be verified. The attorney general found that Midland failed to prevent that office from falsifying information about lawsuits and judgments, that it made up to 15 calls in seven days where two is the limit, and that it pressed consumers whose income was exempt from collection.mass.gov
- Today
- The 2020 judgment expired in October 2025 and Encore says so in its own annual report. Midland is under no CFPB order for the first time since 2015. Pages that tell you otherwise are out of date, and most of the pages ranking for this company do. A clean federal slate is not a clean record: the same annual report says state attorney general investigations into historical collection practices are still open, and that they could end in penalties, restitution or new operating requirements.sec.gov
What they buy and what they collect
$663M
collected through the courts in the United States in 2025. Encore reports $315 million of legal collection costs in the same year.
$1.17B
of United States portfolios bought in 2025, a record and an 18% rise. Encore names the reason: near-record revolving consumer credit and a charge-off rate of more than 4%.
Encore Capital Group FY2025 results release
2.6x
what Encore reports collecting for every dollar it has paid for its United States portfolios, across $11.1 billion of purchases.
Brian Parker · 30+ years defending these cases
How these cases come apart.
“MCM uses what I call Mill Pleadings. The same lawsuit template filed in every state.”
Brian Parker · MCM cheat sheet
“Always remember that Midland Credit Management is a debt buyer that has very little proof of ownership.”
Brian Parker · show notes, your first court appearance with MCM
What he looks for in a Midland Credit Management file
- The affidavit is the target. A legal specialist in Minnesota swears to what a computer screen shows, in a case filed in another state.
- Affidavits signed before the lawsuit exists. The sworn statement calls you the defendant weeks before anybody filed a case.
- A certificate of conformity citing New York real property law, in a debt case with no New York connection and no real property in it.
- A complaint naming a company you have never heard of, while the loan agreement attached to it names a different bank.
The opinions linked on this page come from the same public database Case Searcher runs over, with the full text attached.
Watch · January 2026
How Was Her Case Decided Without a Judge!?
Who is Midland Credit Management? (MCM)
August 2023
From the open forum
Members who stood where you stand.
“So, I had my debt collection case with MCM today. I WON!!”
A member’s account of his own hearing in a Pennsylvania magisterial court. He says that when the attorney asked whether the debt was his, he answered that he did not recall, and that proving it was the attorney’s job.
“Lost my trial vs MCM down here in Texas, but wish I would have prepared a bit more. Found this site a bit late”
A member’s account of losing at trial in Texas. He is asking the forum about an appeal. People lose these cases, and we would rather you read one than find out later.
“I discovered that it was an Adobe Font made to look like a signature. This is another example of robosigning and false statements to the court.”
A member’s account of what he found when he enlarged the signature on the document filed against him. It is his own reading of his own paperwork, and his case was still running when he posted it.
Every thread is public and free to read. These are the members’ own accounts of their own cases, and we make no claim about how any of them came out. Read the whole forum.
What people ask
Questions about Midland Credit Management.
If the account is years old, the timing questions are on the old debt page. If you have already been served, start here instead.
Check it against the court rather than against us. The papers print a case number, a court and a deadline, and that court’s own docket will show whether a case with that number exists. The clerk can confirm it. Do not use a phone number printed on the papers to find out. People do get fake collection papers, and people also get real papers from a company they have never heard of, so nothing on this site can tell you which one you are holding. If it is real, the deadline on it is already running.
Both belong to Encore Capital Group. Midland Funding, LLC bought the accounts and was the name on the older lawsuits, including Midland Funding, LLC v. Johnson in the Supreme Court in 2017. Midland Credit Management, Inc. is the collection business, and it is the name on the newer ones. In 2025 we counted 226 federal dockets naming Midland Credit Management against 27 naming Midland Funding. We found no document dissolving Midland Funding, so we will not tell you it is gone. Read the caption on your own complaint. The name there is the plaintiff.
Not because a letter says so. A debt buyer has to prove to a court that it owns your account and that you owe the amount it claims. Until a court enters a judgment, no court has ordered you to pay this company anything. That is a separate question from whether the original account was yours. Check the age of it as well. Every state limits how long anybody has to sue on a debt, and the old debt page covers what that means.
They ask for a default judgment and courts grant them. The Eighth Circuit described the cost in Delgado v. Midland Credit Management in March 2025. The consumer ignored a Minnesota summons, a default judgment entered, and she then sued in federal court arguing Midland never owned the debt. The court held that the judgment had settled ownership and that she could have contested it in the state case or asked that court to reopen it. In the opinion’s own words: “Not an option, however, is collaterally attacking it in federal court.” Answer by the date printed on your summons.
Not before it has a judgment. After a judgment, what a creditor can reach depends on your state, and some income is protected everywhere. The way to stop a garnishment is to deal with the case while it is still a case. If a judgment has already been entered against you, the garnishment page on this site covers where that leaves you.
Brian’s opinion, and he states it as an opinion, is that Midland is among the easiest of the big buyers to settle with. We publish no settlement percentage for it, because no sourced figure exists and the percentages on other sites are invented. If you do negotiate, do it in writing. Say in every message that you do not acknowledge the debt. File your answer on the day it is due whether or not a deal has landed, because a phone call does not stop the clock.
Neither. It is a licensed debt buyer that files lawsuits every week. The 2020 stipulated judgment expired in October 2025, and Encore reports that in its own annual report, so pages telling you Midland is under a CFPB consent order are out of date. That is not a clean record. The same report says state attorney general investigations into historical collection practices are still open, and that the company is routinely subject to legal actions alleging it attempts to collect debts on which the statute of limitations has run and has made inaccurate or unsupported assertions of fact in support of its collection actions.
Before you file anything
About the motion to compel arbitration.
Reddit’s most repeated tactic against a debt buyer is a motion to compel arbitration, and people there report cases being dropped rather than arbitrated. Brian takes the other side: “Arbitration is not your first move. Arbitration is your last resort.” In a Midland case there is a practical problem before the strategic one. The motion needs the arbitration clause out of the agreement you signed, and a Midland complaint usually arrives with a bill of sale, an affidavit and a certificate of conformity rather than that agreement. If they cannot produce it, that is a problem for their case as well as for your motion.
Sued by Midland? The date on the summons is the one that matters.
Start with what to do after being served. Then let ParkerGPT read the complaint, the bill of sale and the affidavit they filed against you. Both plans include every tool on this site except Court Tester, which is Pro only.