Bankruptcy filing halts trial

A bankruptcy filing by the owner of a check collection agency halted the start of a jury trial Tuesday in the lawsuit a Plumas Lake woman filed because she said the company harassed her after she stopped payment on an $800 check.

Marina Bolshakoff, 64, said an employee of Checks Collected Efficiently of Sacramento, called Bolshakoff about the check, screamed at her, told her to shut up, swore and hung up.

Bolshakoff put a stop payment order on her check written to a man who did landscaping that she said proved to be substandard.

Checks Collected had offered $5,000 before the trial to settle the lawsuit filed in Yuba County Superior Court.

Trial proceedings stopped with Russell L. Downey of Sacramento, owner of Checks Collected, filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings Tuesday. He lists assets of $100,000 to $500,000. Downey's liabilities total $500,000 to $1 million, according to his filing in federal court.

The check collection agency disputed Bolshakoff's account of employee Michelle Reid's behavior, but in a deposition and later interview, Reid recounted her work for the company.

Reid spoke about using obscene language, threatening to file lawsuits and answering the phone "legal department" though she had no legal training.

"I did whatever it took to get the money," she said. "I lied to people every day on the phone to get them to pay."

Bolshakoff said the landscaper cashed her October 2007 check days later at a store in Stockton even though he had been told about the stop payment order. He has since disappeared and his cell phone has been disconnected, she said.

Checks Collected contacted her months later, Bolshakoff said.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com.