Georgia Payday Loan Lenders Argue Case in Court
By Paul RizzoPayday Loan Writer
The Macon Telegraph ran the following, paraphrased editorial:
As the saying goes: “When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you have the law on your side, argue the law. When you don’t, pound on the table and scream like hell.”
That appears to be the procedure two convicted Bainbridge loan sharks are following in their appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court asking that their 49 convictions under the state “payday lender” law be thrown out. This law metes out harsh penalties to lenders who make high-interest online payday loans.
The Associated Press reported that defendants, John Dunlap and Nathaniel Glenn, say they were unfairly convicted under the Georgia law because they were targeted while lending companies whose headquarters are out of state were ignored.
Their attorney argued that the state quick cash advance law violates the federal Equal Protection clause.
If that were the case - and it doesn’t appear that it is - then reasonable people would certainly demand that the state target all whose businesses involve illegal, high-interest loans. While it might be more satisfying to tar and feather such scofflaws and ride them out of town on a rail, we would hope that anyone who violates payday cash advance lending laws would be targeted for prosecution.
Among those who fall prey to these lending scams are low-paid military servicemen and women.
And many times, once a borrower gets involved with a payday lender, charlatans who charge interest rates far beyond what legitimate lending institutions charge, he or she falls into a vicious cycle of having to borrow more just to keep up payments.
In any case, the out-of-state cash loan lenders to which the defendants referred were banks that come under federal regulations and are no longer in business, according to Joseph Mulholland, district attorney for five counties in South Georgia.
The AP quoted him as saying they either moved out of Bainbridge or were shut down by the federal government.
State authorities are to be applauded for prosecuting the Georgia-based lenders, as they should any time someone breaks the law by making illegal loans. We hope this challenge to the bad credit payday loan lender law fails, as did an earlier challenge last year. We don’t need these hucksters plying their trade in our state.
