San Francisco Superior Court
In a rare jury trial against a credit card collection agency, a San Francisco jury ruled in favor of a young woman who was the victim of an abusive campaign to force her to repay a debt she never incurred. Anne Marie Murphy and Justin T. Berger represented Anastasiya Komarova, who was awarded $600,000 from National Credit Acceptance, Inc. in 2008. Komarova had been subjected to nearly a year of hostile telephone calls to her workplace and a spurious arbitration proceeding, all over a bogus credit card debt and despite the fact that she repeatedly told the agency she never had an account with the credit card company in question. In issuing its verdict, the San Francisco Superior Court jury described National Credit Acceptance's conduct as "outrageous." The verdict is believed to be one of the largest verdicts in the country by a sole plaintiff alleging credit abuse.