Palisade Legal Group review: Debt repayment program

I'm being sued by Discover, despite not missing a single payment to Palisade Legal Group and paying for the "Veritas Legal Plan." Signing with Palisade LG (Legal Group) has been the absolute worst financial decision we have ever made! We are deeper in debt, being sued, our credit ruined, and waiting to get sued by the remaining account that hasn't been negotiated, almost 2 years into this agreement. After my husband suffered a debilitating medical emergency and underwent emergency surgeries, he had to spend months in hospital and was unable to work afterward. We had to quit our jobs as houseparents at a boarding school. Our debt increased quickly as we survived using credit cards to pay bills and buy groceries for our family for a few months while I was trying to secure a new job. For the first time, our credit card balances grew so out of control that we could no longer afford to make monthly payments. Interest rates kept going up along with our debt and we couldn't afford food or utilities anymore after paying the mortgage, credit cards and other bills. At first we were very happy with Palisade Legal Group. We had received their advertisement in the mail when we could no longer afford our monthly credit card payments and didn't want to fall behind. Loans were not an option, due to high credit card balances we were considered too risky. We tried that first. We did some research and were impressed by the overwhelmingly positive reviews we read online and decided to put our trust in Palisade Legal Group. When my husband first called, the consultant was friendly and seemed knowledgeable. He asked which accounts we wanted to include in the plan, how much we paid every month as well as total balances and other info. He took all the details they needed for the 4 accounts and calculated a custom payment agreement for us that would not only reduce our monthly payment, but would also eliminate our debt in 4.5 years. He instructed that, once signed, we were to make no further payments on the 4 credit card accounts in the plan, and to ensure that Palisade LG received their payment every month, and that they would do the rest. Initially it seemed to work well, they negotiated the largest account after a few months, and the second (smallest account) about a year later. After stopping payments to the 4 accounts, as instructed by Palisade LG, we kept receiving notices and warning letters from the credit card companies, but Palisade LG reassured us that it was normal and that we could just ignore it since the accounts were with them now and that they would negotiate them.
Palisade LG also started calling us every month, demanding to go over all our financial info again and again (just like we did at the time of applying for and signing the agreement): income, expenses, etc., the calls lasted long as they were trying to get us to pay more money. We were confused: when we signed with them, the Palisade Group themselves had carefully and independently calculated the monthly payment they would need from us to settle the 4 accounts. Had they made a mistake or a miscalculation? Why were we now expected to pay more than the amount we agreed upon? We hadn't missed payments or broken the terms of our agreement at all.
We have explained countless times that we don't have extra funds and that additional lump sum payments or higher monthly repayment amounts were never discussed or mentioned to us when signing up, or else we would never have signed up with Palisade LG to begin with. It isn't currently an option for us to pay more and it wasn't part of our agreement. We explained that our income had not increased, that our expenses had in fact increased and that we did not have any additional funds at all.
We had initially been assured that payment of the monthly amount for the term of the agreement was all we had to do. Yet, every month we had exactly the same conversation with them. Essentially, the hours spent on calls with the call center and explaining our financial circumstances did absolutely nothing. They only kept asking for more money. When we ask the call center legal questions pertaining to the lawsuit, they only respond saying that they're not lawyers and can't answer legal questions. We have never missed a payment to Palisade Legal Group, we have kept to the agreement 100%. When we signed the agreement, our credit cards had been paid up to date and we had excellent payment histories and each of us had almost a decade and a half relationship with Discover. Until we joined Palisade LG.
About a year and a half into our agreement with Palisade Legal Group, Discover sued me. Two police officers showed up at our door and hand-delivered a court summons for the lawsuit against us, warning that we could lose our "property and other important rights" if the court found judgment in favor of Discover. All documents we received were submitted to Palisade LG immediately, along with calls to confirm that they had received it and were actively working on it. They assured us repeatedly that they were handling it. We are charged $60 extra every month for the "Veritas Legal Plan," this happens for the duration of the agreement (60 months). Palisade Legal Group explained it would offer legal protection in the "very rare chance we were ever sued." However, despite having the Veritas Legal Plan, and calling several times to confirm they were working on it, no action was taken by them or the lawyer on our behalf in court. The court was not contacted at all. Despite the calls and pleas for assistance with Palisade LG, we were entirely alone and not represented in the court case. We also didn't respond to the court ourselves within the allowed timeframe, because we had been assured by Palisade that they were working on it and would act on our behalf. We have never been sued before and had no idea how it works or what can be done, so we placed our trust fully on the Palisade Legal Group and their assurances.
Last week another letter came where the court indicated that a default judgment had been entered in favor of Discover due to us not being represented in the court case, and we are now awaiting the court's judgment in the form of a property lien, wage garnishment, etc. The court's judgment in favor of Discover awarded everything they asked for, since the case went uncontested. It will now cost us thousands more than we originally owed. Chances of Palisade LG negotiating this debt down have now been eliminated since Discover was awarded everything they asked for in court. The judgment against us is based squarely on the fact that we were not represented by our Veritas Legal Plan, and specifically the lawyer we were just last week informed by Palisade LG was supposed to represent us and handle our case: Amy Ginsburg of The Ginsburg Law Group (Pennsylvania). In all the calls we made to Palisade LG during the court's allotted window, we were assured that they were working on it, I was not told to contact a lawyer that had been assigned to our case.
To date, we have paid Palisade Legal Group $18,611.60 (20 months' payments) of which they only used $6.613.84 for actual debt payments on the 2 settled credit accounts. Almost 2/3 of our payments ($11,997.76), were used for Palisade Legal Group fees, charges and other purposes, all while we are being sued in court and our property and rights are being threatened. My reputation has been ruined, I now owe more, and we don't have additional funds and definitely not a lump sum.
Prior to the court's judgment, Palisade LG had contacted us and informed us that they had negotiated a settlement offer for us; after we had repeatedly told them that we didn't have additional monthly funds, they now wanted us to pay "a lump sum injection" of $16,600 as payment on the Discover account to settle it. It is important to note that we only owed $12,055 on it when we signed it over to Palisade Legal Group and the card was paid up to date. When we informed them once again that that was not a possibility, they proposed a new settlement offer: Discover wanted $12,850 ($795 more than we owed when Palisade LG took over the account) and an additional $3,750 was added by Palisade Legal Group as their negotiation fee. What kind of negotiation is it when they didn't negotiate the original amount down, but actually increased it (from $12,055 originally up to $12,850) and then still want to charge a negotiation fee of $3,750 (for the courtesy of increasing our debt amount and letting us get sued without the protection they had assured us of under the Veritas Legal Plan)?
Alternatively, the court judgment against us is for the amount of $15,064.99. This is $1,535.01 less than if we settle through Palisade Legal Group.
To sum up, thanks to Palisade Legal Group not negotiating this account in a timely manner we now owe $3,009.99 extra ($12,055 originally, increased to the court's judgment of $15,064.99) and my reputation is ruined following the lawsuit. If a background check is run on me, this will pop up and affect my future employment opportunities, credit worthiness, etc.
Again, during several calls to Palisade LG, when we explained in depth that we didn't have ANY additional funds, especially not $16,600, as per their settlement offer. They then offered an alternative: $4,150 on top of our monthly payment of $930.58 for 3 months. When we detailed once again that we possessed $0 in additional funds and couldn't do this, they proposed a downpayment of $3,860 as well as additional payments of $620 per month (in addition to our monthly payment) until the debt was settled. The final option they gave was to pay an additional $1,335 per month until the debt was paid in full. We don't have extra funds, we are scraping by. We have one car that's 14 years old that I use for work that can't be sold and we hope won't break down.
Because of this agreement with Palisade Legal Group, we incurred additional debt, our reputation and credit are ruined, and as a result we won't qualify for a loan to pay this ourselves. We are now out of options. Palisade takes 27.5% of settled accounts as a fee, they calculate this on the higher original debt amount, not the lower negotiated amount. Also, they take their fees up front; once negotiated and before repaying your debts, regardless if you're being sued. They don't care. Soon we will have been paying on this agreement for 2 of the 4.5 years and only 2 of the 4 accounts have been negotiated, while we are being dragged through the court and now waiting for the 4th account to also start suing us, since they haven't received payment for almost 2 years (thanks to Palisade LG not negotiating this in an appropriate amount of time). Furthermore, it seemed that the lawsuit against us was a good way for Palisade LG to try and leverage extra pressure on us for more payments and "lump sum injections".
This has been an absolute nightmare for us! We have no recourse and requested Palisade Legal Group to speak to a lawyer, but were informed that it will take about 7-10 business days. I work the whole week and am unable to receive personal calls while working. They are unable to provide a date and time for the call so that I can take leave that day to ensure I can take the call. If we miss the call we would have to request another call all over again and wait another 7-10 business days, while the court's judgment against us will be handed down any day now, probably before we receive that call. We have kept to our agreement, not missing a single payment and fully putting our trust in the Palisade Legal Group. We are not able to pay additional funds, if we had large amounts of money at our disposal we would have paid the credit card companies immediately ourselves, we would not have sought help from Palisade LG. We would love to pay off these balances immediately but it's not an option. We don't have wealthy family or friends to ask for money, no investments, no retirement funds. Paying Palisade is our 1st priority every month, it has been since we signed our agreement. We ensure that their payment goes off before paying any other bills or even buying groceries. We were reassured initially, that after signing our agreement with Palisade, all that was required from our side was our payment to them every month, and to send any documents (on the 4 credit card accounts) as quickly as possible when we receive them. It was never explained that they don't contact or negotiate accounts in a timely manner. Instead, we have discovered, accounts are left until there's enough funds to settle, this can take years and in the meantime your creditors will sue you. We would greatly appreciate a solution to this problem that fits into the existing and original agreement and payment plan we have with Palisade Legal Group, before the court passes judgment and before we get sued by the 4th account. We would also like a refund of all amounts paid for the "Veritas Legal Plan" since it did not provide the service we had been paying for when we needed it.