After taking the appropriate steps with a creditor to negotiate a deal (i.e. i pay them full balance, they won't verify with CRs and note my accoutn as paid in full and send me a pink slip for the car) they have sent me two more bills for more than owed, no pink slip, and credit now shows Charge off. I contacted an attorney and discussed the case. He says I will win as I was within the law and used steps clearly laid out in the commercial code. However he advised that I write them a softley threating letter first to see if I can get it resolved before we go to court. He will charge me $500 to write this letter so I'm looking to see if someone might have a suitable letter geared toward perfomance that I can adapt to this situation. Any help would GREATLY be appreciated. This forum has been invaluable to me and I thank all of you for contributions to it. Misterman
$500 just to write a simple letter that he can dictate to his secretary in 5 minutes or less? So he spends maybe $5.00 to pay the secretary to type it up, 5 cents worth of electricity to do it, 37 cents for a stamp, 2 cents for the envelope and maybe a penny for the sheet of paper and he wants $500 for that? No wonder you want somebody to give it to you for free. And if his letter don't work then how much does he want to sue them for you for heaven's sakes? You can bet he would want thousands for that. And that is exactly why it is so hard to find lawyers to take FDCPA cases. They believe that the most you can get out of such cases is $1000. That leaves nothing or next to nothing after they get their attorney fees out of that $1000 and that is what is commonly known as an attorney fees only case. That is against their code of ethics because the client is supposed to get the lion's share of the money if the attorney wins. Most attorneys want about 30 to 40 percent of the win plus costs such as filing fees and ect. In their eyes that means that if they win and get the full $1,000 they might get $300 to $400 out of it for all their work which isn't worth it to them. And what if they only get a $1.00 judgment? That can happen. Yes, they can get reasonable attorney fees on top of the $1,000 but what are "reasonable attorney fee"? That's up to the judge to decide and I know of one collection case in which the Plaintiff (a collection agency) went to court in a landlord case demanding $1680.00. The defendant went in Pro Se and lost but he did such a good job of defending himself that the Plaintiff got a judgment for $80 plus 10% of that for attorney fees plus court costs. The attorney spent 3 days in court trying to prove his case and couldn't. He was very lucky to get even that much. The judge was really angry with the Plaintiff and the attorney because they were claiming things that couldn't possibly be true and the defendant proved they couldn't possibly be true. The amazing part was that they had a lady witness who had just recently been hired on as manager of the complex. She didn't know the defendant, didn't know even one single fact to be true and admitted it in court. They didn't even have the original contract any more because it had been so long since the defendant had moved out. The defendant objected strenously about hear say evidence and the fact that anything the witness might say would be hear say evidence and not admissable in court. The judge agreed but stated that he would allow it because if he didn't the plaintiff wouldn't have a case!!!!! If the defendant had wanted to appeal the case he would have won on appeal in a heart beat but he is very poor and couldn't even afford to pay $20 to have a court reporter there. How do I know all that I have said is true? I know the defendant well. I went to court with him that day and I sat there and listened to it all. I even had the defendant wired with a tape recorder and I had one going too. He was so nervous he forgot to turn his on but I had mine on. Back then you could easily sneak a small digital recorder into the court house but not any more because they have installed metal detectors at the doors. I don't know whether they would let those things into the courthouse or not but I don't ever intend to take the chance. The only tape recorder that would be safe is the kind that is built into a wrist watch. They cost about $250 which is no big deal if you need one but I don't.
My advice may sound contrary to the otehrs on this board, but I recommend that you pay for the attorney to write the letter, I think you will find it wise money spent. I know it seems like a lot of money to write a letter, but what you are truly paying for is the lawyer's signature. If the lawyer is succesful, $500 down the road will be small change compared to a cleaner credit report, as well as the peace of mind knowing this issue is closed and behind you. You could write your own letter, and we could help you write what your attorney would write. But....there is an impact having a lawyer write the letter with his stationary and signature. This shows you are serious, and have "true weapons in your war chest". Unfortunately, as more people become educated about credit repair, and "do it themselves", the effectiveness had diminished. Creditors now receive countless letters threating suit, they are now starting to sound like hollow threats. I have been through something similar, and I have found that the threats of suit are becoming less effective to creditors. If this is a situation where this could severely impact your credit for seven years, I would have the letter professionally written. The last advice I can offer is try and negoatiate the price. Perhaps you can draft the letter, and pay less. Either way, use the professional.
In my opinion, a firm's letterhead is worth the $500. I would be very surprised if you did not receive the desired result using an attorney.
