Sanctioned Lawyers in Debt Cases Not ‘The Good Guys,’ Judge Says

Two lawyers and their Pittsburgh law firm have been sanctioned by a federal judge for engaging in what she said was a “campaign of deception designed to line their own pockets.”

Joshua P. Ward, Travis A. Gordon, and their firm, J.P. Ward & Associates LLC, wrote “forged letters” from their clients in an effort to entrap the defendant in a pair of debt collection cases into violating a federal debt collection practices law, said Judge Cathy Bissoon, of the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, in an Aug. 5 opinion.

"[T]he Court’s reaction was one of disbelief, ...