REGENT & ASSOCIATES Lawfirm review [heading for extinction in 2015]

Regents & Associates - Review of Houston Debt Collection Boutique Firm

REGENT & ASSOCIATES LAWFIRM REPRESENTS AN ARRAY OF CREDITORS, BOTH BANKS AND DEBT BUYERS

Anh Regent has his own law firm and operates out of Houston [or rather did so until recently (see April 2015 update below]. He also owned a collections firm that had its privileges to do business forfeited for failure to pay state tax. 

UPDATE: Anh Regent has lost most of his clients, who they are now his creditors in his bankruptcy case, filed in March 2015 in Houston (Southern District of Texas / Bankruptcy Court). He also owes his process server (big time - six-figure amount), venders, banks (Chase), the IRS, and numerous other creditors. He let go most or all of his staff because he could not pay them any more, and defaulted on his office lease. He also owes for unpaid salary. He is basically history in the debt collection world. His clients are now trying to collect from him and he also has a dozen-or-so lawsuits pending in which he is the named defendant himself or represented the defendant (most of them for FDCPA actions).  He is also being accused of have taken his client's money (advanced for costs of filing lawsuits) and having diverted it to unknown purposes. 

The original post continues below. Because of the lease termination, the listed address is no longer accurate. 

   

WHICH PLAINTIFFS DOES REGENT SUE FOR?

Regent & Associates handles debt collection suits for numerous banks and assignees. Among them: American Express; Bank of America (FIA); Discover Bank; LVNV Funding LLC; Portfolio Recovery Associates; Equable Ascent Financial, LLC; Hilco Receivables.

TYPICAL PLEADINGS

Mr. Regent is one of those debt collection attorneys who sues on various theories of recovery, sometimes even quantum meruit, and even mixes them up within a single paragraph. Uniquely, among his peers, he typically pleads for a judgment on a slash/slash-whatever-works theory titled “SUIT ON OPEN & STATED ACCOUNT/DEBT/BREACH OF CONTRACT" in a single paragraph. (--> Sample debt suit petition filed by Regent & Associates).

Regent also represents creditors in appellate litigation on occasion. One significant case is Tully v. Citibank(South Dakota), N.A.. In that case, it was the debtor who appealed after he ended up with a judgment in the trial court, so the appeal itself wasn’t Regent’s choice. Regent handled the defense of the summary judgment on appeal himself, however, and lost.

KEY APPELLATE CASE INVOLVED DEBT SUIT BY REGENT 

In Tully, Regent had pleaded three theories of recovery and had been successful in persuading the trial court to grant his motion for summary judgment. No one theory was specifically singled out in the judgment.  But the court of appeals reversed, holding that a credit card debt suit could not be litigated as a sworn account, that quantum meruit – an equitable theory -- was precluded in the presence of the contract, and that there was a fact issue as to the amount owed. Therefore, summary judgment on the contract claim was error also.

In Tully v. Citibank the court of appeals expressly held that the bank could not recover under its quantum meruit theory because the summary judgment evidence conclusively established that a contract existed. Though not discussed in the opinion, the contract was actually a requirement of federal law (--> TILA). The Truth in Lending Act just uses slightly different terminology: Disclosure of credit terms to the consumer (hence "TILA Disclosures", sometimes also called “TIL Disclosures”).
  

But that has not stopped Regent from invoking quantum meruit in debt litigation after the adverse outcome in Tully, at least occasionally.

LAW FIRM ADDRESS IN HOUSTON:

Anh H. Regent

            REGENT & ASSOCIATES

            2650 Fountain View Dr., Ste 233

            Houston, Texas 77057

            Fax: (713) 490-7075