You can cancel your agreement with Cordoba Legal Group at any time, and the firm cannot penalize you for doing so. To cancel Cordoba Legal Group cleanly, send a written termination notice by certified mail, separately instruct your bank to stop the automatic withdrawals, and demand return of the money sitting in your dedicated settlement account within seven business days. Each step protects a different piece of what you’re owed, and skipping any one of them tends to be where people lose money.
Read Your Contract Before You Do Anything
Pull out the retainer agreement you signed at enrollment. It contains your client ID or account number, which needs to appear on every piece of correspondence you send. Look for any clause on termination, notice periods, or a specific email or mailing address where cancellation notices must be delivered to count as valid.
Write down the date you signed, the name of the attorney or representative assigned to your case, and the list of debts you enrolled. You’ll want that information when you draft the cancellation letter and later when you check that the firm has stopped contacting your creditors on your behalf.
Some states require debt relief companies to offer a short cooling-off window during which you can cancel and recover every fee you’ve paid. If you’re within the first few days or weeks of enrollment, check whether your state has such a rule before assuming the contract governs. Separately, the Telemarketing Sales Rule bars debt relief providers from charging fees for any debt they haven’t actually settled. Fees the firm legitimately earned on debts already resolved are generally not refundable, but fees tied to unsettled debts should never have been collected in the first place.
Send the Cancellation in Writing
Call Cordoba Legal Group at (888) 988-6815 to put them on notice, but don’t stop there. A phone call alone gives you nothing to point to later. Follow up with a written cancellation letter sent by USPS Certified Mail with Return Receipt Requested. The signed return receipt is your proof of delivery if the firm later claims it never received your notice.
Keep the letter short. Include your full name, your client ID or account number, the date you enrolled, and a clear statement that you are terminating the agreement effective immediately. Ask for three things in writing: confirmation of the cancellation, a final accounting of every deposit and fee tied to your dedicated settlement account, and a timeline for returning the remaining balance. Keep a copy of what you send.
If Cordoba runs an online client portal, you can file the request there as well and screenshot the confirmation page with its timestamp. The certified letter remains your strongest proof.
Stop the Automatic Bank Withdrawals
Canceling the legal agreement does not stop the scheduled bank drafts. Those are a separate authorization, and you have to shut them down yourself by contacting your bank or credit union and telling them to block future transfers to Cordoba Legal Group and to the third-party escrow company holding your dedicated account.
The Electronic Fund Transfer Act gives you the right to stop any preauthorized electronic transfer by notifying your bank at least three business days before the next scheduled payment. You can do it orally or in writing, but if you only call, the bank can require written confirmation within 14 days or the stop-payment order expires.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1693e – Preauthorized Transfers Put it in writing from the start.
Banks typically charge a stop-payment fee of roughly $15 to $35. Give them the merchant name, the account number the withdrawal comes from, and the recurring amount. Get written confirmation that the stop-payment order is in place. This step is not optional. People who skip it routinely find another payment pulled days after they thought they’d canceled.
Recover the Money in Your Dedicated Account
The monthly payments you were making went into a dedicated account at a third-party financial institution. That money is yours. Federal regulations are explicit: the customer owns the funds in the account and may withdraw from the debt relief service at any time without penalty.2eCFR. 16 CFR 310.4 – Abusive Telemarketing Acts or Practices
Once you request cancellation, the firm must return the funds within seven business days, minus any fees legitimately earned for debts already settled where you’ve made at least one payment under the settlement agreement.2eCFR. 16 CFR 310.4 – Abusive Telemarketing Acts or Practices If Cordoba hasn’t settled any of your debts yet, the entire balance should come back to you.
Request a detailed final statement showing every deposit, every fee deducted, and the remaining balance. Compare it line by line against your own bank records. If the numbers don’t reconcile, or if fees were deducted for debts the firm never settled, that’s worth escalating.
What Happens to Your Debts After You Cancel
This is the uncomfortable part of exiting a debt settlement program. While your payments were accumulating in the dedicated account, you likely weren’t paying your creditors directly. Some of your enrolled debts may be several months delinquent, and creditors who were waiting on a settlement offer may resume aggressive collection.
Canceling does not create any legal shield. Creditors can send accounts to collections, report missed payments to the credit bureaus, or file lawsuits. If a suit has already been filed and you ignore it, a default judgment opens the door to wage garnishment, bank levies, and property liens.
Before you cancel, list every enrolled debt and its current status. For debts Cordoba was actively negotiating, consider contacting those creditors yourself about a hardship plan or a settlement you handle directly. For any debt where a lawsuit has already been filed, talk to an independent attorney immediately. Waiting a few weeks after receiving court papers can eliminate your best options.
Tax on Debts Already Settled
If Cordoba settled any of your debts before you canceled, the forgiven portion may count as taxable income. Creditors are required to file Form 1099-C with the IRS for any canceled debt of $600 or more, and the IRS treats that amount as income you have to report.3Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-C Cancellation of Debt
One exception matters. If your total liabilities exceeded the fair market value of your assets at the time the debt was canceled, you may qualify for the insolvency exclusion by filing Form 982 with your tax return. The exclusion only covers the amount by which you were insolvent, not necessarily the full forgiven balance.4Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 982 If any of your debts were settled at a significant discount, talk to a tax professional before filing season.
Check Your Credit Reports
After you’ve confirmed the cancellation, pull your credit reports from all three major bureaus through AnnualCreditReport.com, which now offers free weekly reports permanently.5Federal Trade Commission. Free Credit Reports Look for two things: that any debts already settled through Cordoba show the correct status, and that the firm is no longer listed as an authorized representative on any of your accounts.
If a settled debt still shows as open or the balance is wrong, file a dispute with the bureau reporting the error and include the settlement letters and payment confirmations you have. The bureau has 30 days to investigate and must remove information it cannot verify.6Federal Trade Commission. Disputing Errors on Your Credit Reports
If Cordoba Won’t Cooperate
Most cancellations go through without a fight. If the firm ignores your notice, sits on your money past the seven-business-day deadline, or keeps pulling withdrawals after you’ve canceled, you have several escalation routes.
- File a complaint with the Florida Bar. Cordoba Legal Group is a Florida-licensed law firm. You can submit online or call 866-352-0707. Complaints about attorney conduct remain in Bar records for 12 months even if dismissed.7The Florida Bar. File a Lawyer Complaint
- File a complaint with the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The Federal Trade Commission enforces the Telemarketing Sales Rule, and violations can carry civil penalties exceeding $50,000 per instance.
- File a complaint with the CFPB at consumerfinance.gov. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has taken enforcement action against attorney-run debt relief operations and accepts consumer complaints directly.
- Contact your state attorney general. Many state AG offices have consumer protection divisions that investigate debt relief companies operating in their state.
Hold on to everything: your original contract, the cancellation letter, the certified mail receipt, bank statements showing the withdrawals, and any emails or portal messages. That paper trail is what turns a complaint into a resolved one.