Palmer, Reifler & Associates
Reviews and Complaints

The Palmer Reiffler Charade by... Carlos, a recipient of their demands and idle threats You've made one costly mistake, don't make another! If you are reading this it is because you have gotten a threatening letter demanding a civil payment, a "civil demand" on behalf of a retailer, with a Settlement Offer of $200 or more. You may have been accused, arrested, or convicted of shoplifting. Some of us have, some have not. Either way, you are reading the same bogus form letter from Palmer Reiffler and Associates, head offices in Orlando Florida. Palmer and Reifler are a couple sleazy bottom feeder lawyers who created a debt collections mill based on a questionably legal loophole. They threaten perceived shoplifters into paying for non-existent damages. They are James Palmer and Natt Reiffler, hereafter PRA. Their Associates are family members. Yes, their relatives are involved in their lucrative scam too. PRA is not Better Business Bureau accredited, nor is it accredited by any respected business reporting service such as ALP, Accredited Legal Professionals. PRA avoid business accreditation as it will expose their seedy methods and disgraceful ethics. Jim & Natt never investigate the merits of their retailer client's claim. They have neither the authority nor the intention to sue if the accused fails to pay, and do not initiate lawsuits to recover statutory damages. Indeed, this effort would be too costly and risky for them. I could find no evidence that PRA has ever sued anyone. Not a single one, ever. PRA is a paper tiger, smoke & mirrors, all bark and no bite, a facade, a charade. PRA are not in the legal business, they are in the collections business. Everyone knows how sleazy the collections business is, PRA are great examples, they are slime balls incarnate and good at it! Palmer, Reifler and Associates send out more than 1.2 million form letters every year. They follow up with more modified form letters and concurrent robocalls. More than 10% of the folks who receive these letters pay them without question. Conservatively, that's $30, 000, 000 a year. They're counting on your payment too! Running a con is not cheap. PRA utilize their demand letters to obtain quick payments from consumers, take what they can induce consumers to pay, split the proceeds with the merchants, and move on. Their demand letters are crafted to shame and frighten consumers into believing that failure to pay the amount demanded may result in criminal prosecution, subject them to a civil suit, and put them at risk of liability for significant additional damages that the merchant has no legal right to recover. Consumers, fearful and ignorant of the falsity of their threats, pay millions of dollars each year in the belief they have in satisfied these misleading and arguably unlawful demands. If you pay their demand your name goes on their other list. Retailers share this list to monitor, and harass you for the rest of your life. Using facial recognition and other technology you could be under national retailer's surveillance forever! The practice of collecting “civil shoplifting damages” has become so lucrative, in fact, that merchants such as Home Depot have instituted policies that are less about protecting their merchandise through “loss prevention, ” and more about detaining customers and prying personal information from them in order to set the stage for demanding hundreds of dollars in statutory damages – even when the merchandise at issue is worth less than $20 and/or there is little or no evidence of any attempt to shoplift. Retailers give PRA the names of everyone involved in anything closely resembling shoplifting. PRA send Demand Letters and make similar robocalls to those on the list. PRA claim they are collecting debts to cover the costs of shoplifting. Ridiculous. The cost of security and stock loss are already built into the price of retail products. It is absurd to think that retailers gamble on the recovery of civil rewards to manage their security budgets. In fact, retailers contract with PRA for a share of their ill gotten gains. Its free money for them, a cost free side business. Retailers get up to 30% of the money PRA collect. PRA and their clients have a big investment in keeping you worried. They have Sr. internet trolls working the internet to keep their con going. Their job is to rebut legitimate PRA discussion, escalate your fear. PRA is behind the educational theft classes required in many cases as part of probationary conditions. PRA manipulate the curriculum taught in their favor. PRA typically send 2 or 3 demand letters. None are signed by an attorney. The First Demand Letter is a single page generic threatening form letter with a Settlement Offer of $200 or more. The Second Demand Letter repeats the threats in the First Demand Letter; warns again that the retailer would be seeking a final judgment of damages, attorney’s fees and court costs. The 2nd letter demands a sum significantly higher, more than double the first. Third Demand Letter represents that a “balance remains” on a claim, which the average consumer might believe means that the amount is fixed, due and owing when, in fact, it is not. The Settlement Offer of this letter is lower than the amount in letter 2, usually $300. Again, none of the Demand Letters were reviewed or signed by an attorney. These are modified form letters meant only to intimidate. This site does not discuss shoplifting. It is legal concern that has no relevance here. PRA use that horrible experience to shame you into paying them. Don't make another costly mistake, don't pay PRA.