Adrian M. Lapas Attorney at Law at Lapas Law Offices, PLLC

01/31/2026

A write-up from a colleague on the Bland/Greene class actions.

Summary:

01/21/2026

Our final approval hearing tomorrow in Jones County.

Case Home: CAROLINA LEASE MANAGEMENT GROUP, LLC v. CHARLES GREENE Settlement

12/23/2025

We are wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We will be on limited hours during this holiday season.

11/27/2025

We at Lapas Law Offices, PLLC, wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

11/03/2025

Final Approval hearing in Elizabeth City on a class action.

09/25/2025

The CFPB was doing important work protecting American consumers (we are all consumers)! But now . . .

A House Committee on Financial Services hearing Thursday morning was an exercise in gaslighting.

09/17/2025

I, along with co-counsel, are finalizing a class action settlement involving 7400 North Carolina residents who entered into rent-to-own transactions with the defendants. We are resolving two class actions--one in federal court (this one below) and another in state court which will be preliminarily approved shortly. The defendants will pay $8 million dollars and almost $700,000 in debt will be cancelled between the two actions. Below is the website created by the claims administrator for the federal case.

Case Home: HANK BLAND, ET AL. v. CAROLINA LEASE MANAGEMENT GROUP, LLC, ET AL. Settlement

08/12/2025

Received the following from the US Bankruptcy Administrator's office--Message from the Bankruptcy Administrator



The BA has been made aware of spear phishing emails that appear to come from a Chapter 13 Trustee or a member of their staff. These messages may originate from email accounts that closely mimic legitimate addresses—or in some cases, from actual accounts that have been compromised.

These malicious actors aim to steal sensitive information or gain access to your systems. If you have any doubts about the legitimacy of an email, contact the sender directly through a known, trusted method to confirm.

Stay alert and think before you click.

06/17/2025

I see so many of these debt settlement companies screw over folks. https://www.law360.com/access-to-justice/articles/2349545/the-law-firm-loophole-how-debt-cos-snare-nc-consumers #

To get around bans in North Carolina and many other states, debt relief companies set up facade law firms — companies that are law firms in name only, with a tiny number of lawyers nominally serving thousands of clients, consumer advocates and regulators say.

05/09/2025

Of course they are!

Retail cards hit a record high average interest rate of 30.5% last year, and rates have stayed close to those levels this year.

05/08/2025

The IRS has extended the time in which North Carolinians may file and pay their 2024 taxes. The link is to the IRS website.

NC-2025-01, April 17, 2025 — Due to the lingering effects of Hurricane Helene, the IRS today further postponed until Sept. 25, 2025, a wide range of tax deadlines for taxpayers throughout North Carolina. Previously, the deadline had been May 1, 2025, for Form 1040 filers, among many others.

04/25/2025

Credit card balances and interest rates are increasing.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chapter-7-bankuptcy-file-consumer-debt/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJ4hHFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETB4dHJKTXhxenNtNjByRFp0AR7iL8kQcB_ATF9RVZ9m8B9eU8Cn2L9iFxF1TDIb43K3vTJdkKUdvRjmtQh0aQ_aem_d6-1TtsTSbFpnEksGx3uOA

Record consumer debt, years of steep inflation and other factors are driving more Americans to considering filing for bankruptcy.