I had a card with Chase with a balance of about $11k. I stopped paying in April of 2009 out of pure stupidity and ignored all communication from them and their collection agency Zwicker and Associates. My parents called last night and received a summons on their door (I have never lived there and still live at the same address that my bills were sent to). Zwicker is suing me for the $11k. I live in MA. I am embarassed that I let it get to this point but I cannot turn back time, I just want to stop any further damage as well as protect my rights. I can pay off most of it right now. I am confused as to my next steps and would love to end the legal action ASAP. Is it to late to contact Zwicker and attempt to negotiate? Do I hurt myself by doing so or should I contact an attorney to represent me? If so, what specialty? I just submitted a request to the local bar association for a referral but am antsy as to other's thought. If only I was this antsy to make sure I paid them originally! Any advice would be appreciated.
The last thing you want now is to have a default judgment filed against you, so you need to respond with an answer to the summons. You can do this yourself, or find a good consumer protection/civil litigation attorney that will give you a free consultation and outline your options. You may still be able to negotiate a payment plan with the firm that filed the suit too...most are always open to a settlement, even after a judgment is awarded. You just have to determine if you want to go at it alone or with the help of an attorney.
If you choose to engage them, you will have to talk to them eventually. If Zwicker is the attorney for the original creditor, you'll have a near impossible hurdle to leap over to win. But if they are doing their jobs, they'll just want to get paid and move on to the next debtor. Civil law is all about settling. The huge question is how to do it. If you show up alone, you might say something stupid. If you show up with a lawyer, they might think you've got enough for an attorney, why cut you much of a deal? There's no answer for this except to read and decide on a plan and move forward. You'll probably be wrong somewhat but the worst thing is to do nothing. Probably. Actually, Dumb Bob is pretty certain about that, doing nothing when you are sued is pretty much the worst thing you can do.
Probably get blasted here but, I would advise you to get a skilled "consumer" attorney. Not a defense attorney, a real consumer attorney that knows the FCRA (probably to late for that), the FDCPA, and so on and so forth. A disclaimer here . . . I am an attorney. Thus, my suggestion my be perceived as biased. It is true you can defend yourself. It is also true that you can get hung in procedure, putting on proof, meeting your burden, etc. You run the risk of a judgment, you need counsel.
Thanks for the advice. I just received a referral for a consumer attorney from the local bar association and will be calling her Monday morning. I was wondering, where the summons was delivered to and address that I have never lived at, rather than the billing address of the card, which is where I do love, is that a serious violation that can give my attorney some leverage to getting a more favorable settlement?
Not a violation really insofar as that is likely the first address on your reports and even if it weren't, Bona Fide error defense would easily apply.
No one knows all the law. A defense attorney is great after you rob a bank. Someone more focused on civil questions is better if you just forgot to post that check to the bank for fifteen months. Really. Not that it's easy to find this guy. Many JDBs will just give up if they know you've got help. Imagine getting destroyed for $35,000 or paying someone a few thousand to set a different tone. If only it were that easy. No matter if you've got game or not, you can't bring to the court the tone that is needed to solve the problem. Yet almost no one has it. Dumb Bob is very bothered by this. If a monster who murders people for no reason should get a lawyer, why can't someone who just got in over their head and in too deep?
I'd certainly recommend trying to negotiate without an attorney first for the simple reason that any money spent on an attorney could be used to help make the payoff. I'd start with an offer of about 60 percent but expecting to actually be lucky to end up with a settlement of somewhere in the 75 to 80 percent range. An arguing point might be that if they don't want to settle for that you will have to consider hiring an attorney and that would be money they could have by settling for less.
I have a problem with this system too. I've represented consumers against Arrow, Midland, Calvary, etc., however, taking them to the mat each and every time is unrealistic given my situation. This is the only way I can recover money more often than not because most consumers simply don't have the money to pay me; i.e., I'm doing it on a contingency. Applying my situation across the board, there are few attorney's who'll do this work b/c it is tedious work relatively speaking, it usually goes to trial, and the likelyhood of a large payout simply isn't there. Keep in mind that the average client that walks through the door isn't up to speed on all the crap we know either.
Definitely not a problem. Just call and tell them you have $5000 and would like to settle. Obviously they are not going to settle for that amount, but will make you a counter offer. Don't worry, we're pretty reasonable. (I'm not divulging my identity since posting here is a conflict of interest, I would imagine). My only other advice is to get things in writing before you pay. I will tell you that an attorney would probably not help you much in this case. What's the point? Don't stress out. Settling mid month to the end of the month is your best bet as settlements are usually lower then. Good luck.
My advice as I have been through this is go to the court house and get the Affidavit of Service. If you haven't lived at the address at the time of default or when you took out the debt, you can get Traverse Hearing where you can dispute that you were not served properly. If you can afford to pay most of the debt, with the Affidavit of Service in hand, call the attorney and mention to them that you were not served properly and then you will be able to negotiate as they won't feel like going to court.
Hi boomer, The reason for touching this thread after the gap or six years is that, I am in such situation now. Although I was very regular in paying my installments but since last two months I was not able to pay it either you can say due to my negligence or somewhat personal reasons. I discussed the matter with my friend and he told me to visit Vantage Acceptance credit card specialist . I visited them and told them all the story. They guided me to take the services of qualified lawyer on the subject. I did accordingly and he pleaded my case so efficiently that on the very first appearance judge passed his order not to repeat such negligence again and be regular in paying my installments in future.
