This was only a matter of time, but Maryland-based law firm Mann Bracken, which in its heyday was perhaps the biggest debt-collection agency in the country, had its collection license formally yanked by DLLR last week. For all practical purposes Mann Bracken has been defunct since January.

Mann Bracken hit the financial skids after the arbitration process it used to adjudicate debt disputes was shut down. In surrendering its license, Mann Bracken admitted "false or misleading representations and unfair practices" as well as "inaccessibility to the public, to the Agency, to the courts, and to opposing parties and counsel."

Mann Bracken is dead, but the thousands of cases it handled live on. In June The Baltimore Sun reported:

Mailed payments from delinquent debtors are still being routed to Mann Bracken - months after the Rockville debt-collection law firm collapsed and shut its doors.

Figuring out who should get the money, garnisheed from the wages of people across the country, is one of the challenges facing the receiver appointed to oversee the firm's unwinding. Mann Bracken has opted to be placed into receivership by the Montgomery County Circuit Court, a seldom-used alternative to bankruptcy.

Six months after the firm unraveled, Maryland's courts are still trying to sort out Mann Bracken's cases against debtors, claims against the firm are multiplying, and more lawsuits are in the works. The firm imploded in January after the spinoff company handling its support work toppled into Chapter 7 bankruptcy, cutting the law firm off from the computerized files it needed to function.