I think these collection agencies have resulted in stooping to a new low. I was recently called into my Human Resources department at my job, to discuss how I wanted to handle the judgement they received against me. I stood there dumbfounded, ASSUMING it was a mistake, but lo and behold it wasnt. My social security number and current address are printed on the top of this page. They sent my HR dept a questionaire requesting my personal information, in addtition to notifying them of a $1400 debt that I defaulted on from a company called MRC Receivables. At this time my HR rep is contacting our company attorney to decide what my next course of action should be, Two days ago I received a letter from my bank(Citibank) with an enclosed copy of the same "Information Subpeona" ,requesting my personal asset information. I have not been able to sleep because I am fearful they are about to stick it to me. Did I forget to mention, I don't know what the hell this debt is for? I pulled my credit report and this judgement is on my credit report as of December 2006!!! I am livid right now!!! How can they do this without even proving you are the right person? I have heard horror stories of collection agencies getting the wrong person, but this is ridiculous!! I refuse to pay for a debt that is not mine, and they are already proceeding litigation without verifying I am the debtor? How can they do this? Can I get this removed from my credit report? My credit report has one negative item on it and it is from a medical bill , for $256 from the year 2005. The hospital has its own collection dept and it is listed under the hospital's name. That was the only negative thing in all 3 of my reports, UNTIL NOW!! I need to know if ANYONE out there has ever experienced this sort of incident. I am scared that I am going to have to close out my bank account because it is where my direct deposit goes, and until this mess is cleared up, I will suffer the agony of paper checks. I live in New York City, and the attorneys on this case for this company "MRC Receivables" is Rubin & Rothman based out of Islandia, NY. Is this legal? I know for a fact this debt is a mistake, how can they claim a judgement against someone without notifying them? I tried to call their office and I got an answering service. PLEASE anyone out there, What can I do? Is it too late to go to court and file an appeal? How can I prove this debt is not my debt. I have no record of this debt being valid, it is not on my credit report, and I do not have other unpaid accounts. Does anyone have experience in NY or any other state with these attorneys. I need to give as much information as possible to my company attorney about what I am up against. Thank For Your Help, I will keep you posted!!
What to do Not much new in what you just said about collection agencies. Not much need to be fearful. They already did that. Now it remains to see how badly they will stick it to you and what you can do to mitigate it. If they have your SS then saying it isn't yours is a bit difficult to believe. Maybe but you have more important things to worry about right now. Yes, you will most likely have to suffer the agony of paper checks but I would advise against closing out the bank account. If it is a free account you should keep a couple of bucks in it. If you have funds in that bank in any kind of account get the account down to near zero and keep it there. Don't open an account anywhere else in your state. There are plenty of banks out of (any) state that you can open on line and which will issue debit cards. You can overnight your paper check to them and although it will be a bit more expensive it won't be all that inconvenient. Yes. Several things you should do. The first is to go to the county clerk's office at your local courthouse and ask to see your public record. They will show it to you on a monitor. Look for that judgment and then ask for a copy of all the paperwork in the file. Then you will be in a much better position to understand what happened, when it happened and why it happened. Were you served? If so when, where and how? All of that will be found on the service of summons. Who served you? Was it a deputy sheriff or a private process server? That isn't normally important but it can be in N.Y. I know of some N.Y. cases in which the process server claimed to have served people who were as much as 200 miles apart in less than 1/2 hour. A company could do that but not using the same employee to do the serving. Normally it does little good to challenge the service or the jurisdiction of the court because an officer of the court has sworn he served you properly and the court will believe almost anything they say no matter how impossible it might be. The chances are that you were properly served because there are many ways you can be served. 1 They can serve you by mail but somehow you didn't get the letter. 2. They can serve you by putting the summons on your door or almost anyplace you should be able to find it. I've seen them nailed to fence posts on vacant property owned by the debtor who once lived there and still owns the property. 3. They can serve anyone at your home above a certain age or even give it to a neighbor and ask them to give it to you. 4. They can serve you at your place of employment or even an old employer. I'm not saying that all of the above are legal ways to serve the summons. All I am saying is that I've seen it done that way and get away with it. Most of the time it won't do you any good to say you weren't served. Probably. Not only is it probably too late but you weren't there and you didn't have a court reporter there so you don't have a transcript and you didn't raise any issues so you most likely won't be able to appeal. Anyway you are most likely beyond the time limit within which you can file an appeal. You might be able to launch a collateral attack by filing a motion to vacate void judgment. It isn't hard to find reasons to do that. If you lose that then you might be able to file an appeal. It is easier said than done however. One thing you might do is check to see how much they take out. Sometimes they want more than the legal limit. You need to check the law to see how much they can take out. You can file a motion for relief if they try to take too much. That's not what you said earlier. Here is what you said earlier. My credit report has one negative item on it and it is from a medical bill , for $256 from the year 2005. Maybe the reason you think you do not owe MRC Receivables is because (in a sense) you don't. You owe somebody else and it well may be that $256 hospital bill from 2005 which has now grown into the amount they sued you for. MRC Receivables is a 3rd party debt collector who probably bought the debt from somewhere and it might be the hospital. No matter who you might have owed in the first place MRC Receivables might be the plaintiff. They file suits all over the country using local attorneys. These attorneys are not likely to file suit in other states. Your company attorney isn't likely to do you much good. You already know what you are up against. Get your information from the clerk of the Supreme Court in your county. And before someone else comments, New York calls their local district courts Supreme Courts and of course there is a state Supreme Court as well There are two ways your company attorney might help you that I can think of. 1. If you have the cash to pay it off he might be able to arrange for a settlement for less than the full judgment amount. 2. He can figure out how much they can take out and maybe do something about it if they attempt to take too much out of each check. If they do that he should be able to get you a reduction in the amount they take. As a side note, it appears that Midland Credit Management/ MCM owns MRC Receivables. In any case, here is their address. MRC RECEIVABLES CORPORATION 5775 Roscoe Court San Diego, California 92123 They are a Delaware corporation. This might work as a new bank account for you. I'm not recommending them. There are probably similar banks out there who also do the same. I haven't researched them but from their web site it appears they may be a bit expensive. I'm sure there are others out there.
Default Judgement I can't believe it. I am dealing with this law firm as well, for a default judgement. They are terrible and don't care if the debt is valid or not. It looks like they buy debts and do whatever they need to do to collect. I never in fact received a judgement from them for this debt and didn't even know it existed. This judgement is a mistake as well. What can I do to straighten this out.
Get to the courthouse where they got the judgment. Get a copy of the complete file. See how they served you. Check your state laws to see what the requirements are for service, and if they complied. You should probably consult an attorney, at least an initial consultation to see if you were properly served and what you can do.
To build on what Hedwig said, Google your state's laws on service (if someone could post the legal phrase for service, that would be helpful, as searching for "new york service" isn't very fruitful). Some states require that a serious effort be made; ie, the process server must attempt service to the named person or an adult (18+) at the same address. I've seen at least one state where if that fails (and they must try first), they are permitted to send via regular mail. But leaving a document with a neighbor just sounds like a horrible jurisdiction. What if that neighbor is the one suing me?
