The day was busy but fine. At 3:50 my attorney handed me a set of Discovery documents to send out. I'm slightly panicky. I have to be out the door at 4 p.m. but I calmly type up a proof of service and the envelopes, make copies and drop everything in the mail then head out the door to my appointment.
I get down to Steele Lane and stop for gas. I was running on less than empty. Then...DUN DUN DUN...my cell phone rings. It's not usually a good sign when it rings and it's NOT one of my programmed numbers. I pick it up...
"Hello?"
"Hello, Megan? This is Kelly* at the office. Your clients, the Carters* keep calling completely panicked. Can you talk to them?"
"Well I'm in my car. I can come back to the office and call when I get there; I don't have their number."
"I can give it to you..." I sigh and tell her to go ahead.
I call my client while sitting in the car at the gas station. I find out that the bank has frozen their funds. My jaw drops. They're without any cash or access to their money. I tell her to take a deep breath, I'm gonna make some calls, and I will get back to her tonight.
I call my mom. She's the bankruptcy paralegal that I just replaced. She's shocked, too. I call my favorite law professor and ask her thoughts. She thinks it's a violation of the automatic stay. I get back to my office. I'm lucky that it's a nice office in a nice area because it is getting dark. I hurry upstairs. It is now 4:30.
I track down my attorney. He is at the hospital with his wife. We conference quickly and he gives me some direction on what to do from here. I call back my client and find out exactly what happened.
My husband went to the store with our son to get some supplies for a homework project. The debit card wouldn't work. So I checked the accounts online like I had during most of the week and saw that they were all ZERO. I called and they said they put a hold on all the accounts, even the ones that weren't ours and that only the trustee could release them! What are we going to do? We have automatic payments coming out and we don't have any cash!
I try to calm her down and it's now my turn to make some calls. I'm racing against the clock - it's 4:50 p.m. I get contact with the bankruptcy department at Wells Fargo. I introduce myself as the paralegal for the attorney representing the clients. We have a stiff but civil chat. She asks if we received their letters. We did not. She offers to email them to me. I accept.
I wait calmly. I read the letters and I hit the ceiling. You have your nerve, Wells Fargo, asking if we received your letters dated that same day. Now it's time to hit the research. I did some quick searching online, seeing if this is an industry practice. It is not. I find a case from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals which strikes down the practice. I'm on a roll.
I pause. I call my client. I tell her what I have found out. She's still freaking out but I tell her I'm working on it. I maintain professionalism, but I want to give her a big hug.
I get back to work. Now I've read the case, I've marked it up and I'm angry as all heck. The courts already said they can't do this. So stop doing it! I start writing up a legal letter for my attorney to use as a template in the morning. I realize at 7:30 p.m. that I'm up to 2 hours of overtime. I'm so glad at this point that I have purchased a squishy pillow for my desk chair.
I finally head home and go over the case with my mom. She thinks we're on point and she's still shocked that this has happened. I feel the fire of indignation, fighting for my clients. This is not over. I have only just begun to fight.
(Note, while I do change the names of parties for confidentiality, I have NOT changed the name of the bank in this story - this is an internal practice within Wells Fargo and not a law or industry wide practice. Thus we must shame them)
Further reading:
- http://caveatemptorblog.com/wells-fargo-freezing-bank-accounts-bankruptcy-illegal/
- http://www.bankruptcylawnetwork.com/2010/07/06/wells-fargos-procedure-of-freezing-accounts-after-a-bankruptcy-filing-invalidated/
- http://bit.ly/lexiswellsfargo
