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| Phone: | (816) 531-2224 |
| Fax: | (816) 531-2147 |
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Dale Irwin received his undergraduate degree in political science and his J.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1973. Upon graduation from law school, he worked for Legal Aid of Western Missouri from 1973 to 1981. During his tenure at Legal Aid he served as a staff attorney, litigation section member and associate director. He has been with Slough Connealy Irwin & Madden LLC since 1982.
His practice is devoted primarily to consumer protection cases. He has successfully pursued a number of automobile fraud cases, many times joining with fellow attorney Bernard Brown as co-counsel, as in a recent odometer fraud case in which the jury awarded $39,000 in actual damages to the plaintiff and assessed $1,000,000 in punitive damages against the defendants.
He has handled a variety of other consumer matters at both the trial and appellate levels, including cases involving fraudulent sales of rebuilt wrecks, as well others involving unfair and deceptive automobile financing and repossession practices. His practice also includes representation of consumers to enforce their rights under such federal consumer protection laws as the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
When a local finance company sued one of his clients on a void contract, he counterclaimed for malicious prosecution, resulting in a jury verdict for $1,000 in actual damages and $30,000 in punitive damages. He has also successfully prosecuted class actions against car dealers for packing car loans with deceptive charges and junk fees.
In one case against a large national home mortgage lender, he uncovered and challenged an interest overcharge scheme. Joining with Crowder & Bedor law firm of St. Paul, Minnesota, he pursued a class action against the lender, resulting in a $10,000,000 settlement, with many checks anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 going out to homeowner class members.
In another case against a subprime automobile finance company he and fellow attorney Bernard Brown challenged the repossession and lawsuit practices of the finance company, resulting in wiping out $75 million in class member car loan balances, cleaning up class member credit reports, satisfaction of 5,000 court judgments against class members and payment of $13.2 million by the finance company, resulting in checks ranging from $50 to $13,000 being sent to class members.
He is currently involved in several class actions, including one with co-counsel Farrell Hockemeier of Richmond, Missouri, and Jonah Orlofsky of Chicago, against a cable television company for trespassing on farmers' property in constructing a fiber optic cable network. A recent jury trial of the class representatives' claim in that case resulted in a verdict that, extrapolated over the class, would be in excess of $16 million and another $15 million in prejudgment interest, plus yet-to-be-determined class-wide punitive damages.
In addition, he is also currently involved in several class actions challenging automobile finance company repossession practices and another attacking a payday loan company's overreaching, unfair and deceptive practices.
He is a founding member of the National Association of Consumer Advocates, a nationwide group of attorneys dedicated to the practice of consumer law. He has been an active member of the Volunteer Attorney Project ("VAP") of Legal Aid of Western Missouri since that program's inception in 1982, providing pro bono representation to low-income consumers and advice and assistance to other VAP attorneys in the area of consumer protection law.
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