Ray Johnson
Ray has been representing the interests of consumers for more than 25 years. He graduated from the University of Iowa College of Law in the upper 12% of his class. Ray was employed as an Assistant Attorney General in the Consumer Protection Division of the Iowa Attorney General’s Office from 1987 to 2002 litigating both civil and criminal consumer protection cases.
While at the AG’s Office, Ray originated and participated in development of an undercover sting operation later adopted by the FBI, US Postal Service and Secret Service (yes, the Secret Service investigates credit card crime) that led to the arrest and prosecution of hundreds of telemarketers engaged in schemes cheating the elderly. He also testified before a Congressional subcommittee on the issue of fraudulent weight loss products.
In 2002, Ray left the Attorney General’s Office and started the Johnson Law Firm. Since then, the Johnson Law Firm has represented thousands of low and middle-income consumers with a variety of legal problems. Clients have included the homeless and soon to be homeless–those victimized by predatory lending. Other clients sought help after experiencing firsthand the effects of exploding credit cards, outrageous debt collection practices or after having been further exploited by debt settlement companies. Many have been helped with issues related to vehicle purchases, financing, collection practices, identity theft or repossessions.
The Johnson Law Firm has done many impact litigation cases–cases that result in court rulings that assist not only the Johnson Law Firm’s client, but also thousands of others who are not even party to the litigation. Examples include a case where the Iowa Court of Appeals concluded the statute of limitations on a credit card debt in Iowa was five years–not the ten years for written contracts that was routinely being applied by courts and collectors in Iowa. Another case (for the same client on the same alleged debt), resulted in an Iowa federal district court striking down Iowa’s bank garnishment statute as unconstitutional for not providing timely or adequate notice to debtors whose bank accounts were being garnished.
Johnson is frequently consulted by attorneys in Iowa and throughout the United States on consumer protection issues. He has given consumer related speeches for more than a decade, including panel discussions on debt collection issues at Magistrate’s conferences sponsored by the Iowa Judicial Branch and various other continuing legal education seminars sponsored by organizations such as Iowa Legal Aid, the Iowa State Bar Association, the University of Iowa College of law, the National Association of Attorneys General, the National Association of Consumer Protection Investigators, National White Collar Crime, Social Security Disability Attorneys of the Midwest, the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Johnson is a regular guest speaker at Drake University and at the Drake University Legal Clinic on consumer issues.
Heather Minard
Heather has been a Legal Assistant at the Johnson Law Firm for more than three years, working almost exclusively on consumer protection litigation. She has a Legal Assistant degree from Des Moines Area Community College, graduating with a 4.0 in her legal coursework. Heather has a bachelor’s degree in Paralegal Studies with an emphasis in Public Policy from Grand View University. Her GPA was over 3.7.
Heather is directly supervised by Ray Johnson, but has substantial litigation responsibilities at the Johnson Law Firm. She assists with both simple and complex consumer cases, including client intake, drafting legal documents, drafting and responding to discovery, briefing, trials and appeals.
We are very busy at the Johnson Law Firm. There are few, if any, law firms in Iowa that do what we do. We do our best to assist as many people as we can. In most cases it is acceptable for attorneys or clients to contact either Heather or Ray to get a question answered on the status of your case, keep things moving along, or to call something to Ray’s attention or consult with him and get back to you with the information you need.