Discouraged over CA lawsuit threat--thinking of settling To recap: I was served a summons by an atty for a CA. Went round and round with a NACA lawyer who didn't give a crap about my case. I didn't want to go beyond my retainer so she advised me to make a motion for discovery, which I have not done. The opposing side has: CC statement w/my address from 2005 An agreement, but not my signature Assignment and bill of sale that's signed by OC (but not on letterhead or anything) I have: Opposing counsel contacted me after I retained an attorney Opposing counsel emailed me at at a blog that's not even under my name, so could have been anyone, discussing the case I met with another NACA lawyer who I thought would be tougher and he was: on me. Grilled me about how I got into debt in the first place(!) Called opposing council while I was sitting there and told them that he didn't know I had had another lawyer on the case (I told his legal assistant??). Offered to walk me through response for summary judgment for free and will take the case if I win that? He said I can ask for up to $10,000 under my state's laws. Also said ccs fall under written agreements in my state (if it were open agreement, would be past sol). Opposing council didn't know I was there (he was on speaker phone) and I learned that he is willing to make a 'reasonable settlement' because he thinks I don't have any money at all and may be bankruptcy material. The NACA atty told me it won't be for less than 80% even if I do a lump payment. Totally discouraging. I want to just settle so I never have to deal with anyone like these people again. What is a normal settlement offer? No way am I doing 80%. But could start with 25 and go to 50%.
mellow, What did it cost you to retain these attorneys? If they other side is thinking BK they'll be glad to get anything. I'd start at 20% and might go up to 35%. How much money are we talking about here anyway? Who's the OC?
I went back and read your initial thread on this whole thing. Did you ever find out if this was a real summons or not? As for your first letter I did tell you to get another lawyer as from what you wrote the lawyer was not doing well by you. As for settling IME a JDB will be happy to take 25 percent MAX. If you owe 7K AND if you feel that they will win in court ,or you do not want to deal with this anymore, offer 1K and hold firm and then see what happens. You may have to pay 2500 but that would be it. Woofer
Washington State. The attorney and courthouse seemed to think it was real summons. I know that lawyer wasn't great, but the second one was the one reaming me over the debt, so... I will try to offer $1000. Thanks so much for your time!
Being a lawyer is their business. You don't have any money. That's the reality. Of course if the other side has been violating the law, that changes everything because provable violations under the FDCPA (and other laws) can mean fee shifting. This means if you win, they pay your lawyer. So then it doesn't matter if you don't have any money. You don't want to go beyond your retainer so the lawyer suggests to you what the next move should be if you are pro se. Discovery sets the limits on what they have, unless they are going to play games. Of course count on them playing games. But still properly using discovery is vital to the future of your case. Does this "assignment" mention your account specifically? Discovery can tell you. Did they know that? If they knew it and if they still contacted you, I think that's a FDCPA violation. In that case, the fee shifting I was talking about is possible. Not to mention the extreme emotional distress you went through thinking about who else they could be e-mailing. That sounds like real damages. Dumb Bob is feeling a little queasy about it too, maybe they could send him a few bucks. You are going to think about this for the future, right? Really, if you can't win summary judgment, what do you have? By definition, nothing. Look up what the rules are for summary judgment. Specifically ask him for the case law on this. It would be interesting to see how clear this is from the appeals courts.
The second one did give you good advice as to Discovery. I DO find it odd though that he was lecturing you on your debts, or were you reading more into it? I have dealt with a lot of cases and one thing I do feel is possible is that this JDB will settle for A LOT LOT LESS than one that are asking for. Sometimes if you do not have the patience and your stress level is about to crack you should SETTLE and be done with it. YOu have to look at the big picture. How much your time and emotional and sometimes physical well being is worth. Most people just do not have the stamina to deal with court and o pro se. Woofer
Opposing counsel called and left message that they're unable to come up with a letter of assignment other than the blank piece of paper with no printed name or title (or amount that I owe or my name or the account number). It says that the JDB bought accounts from the bank, but that's it. It has a signature but no name.
I would still like to settle, just to put this matter to rest, but my fear is that someone will surface next week or something with complete information and I'll then have to settle with them too. Is there any way to guarantee that once you give one collection agency money that no one can ever come after you for the same debt again?
No. It says that accounts were transferred from bank to CA. That's it. No name or letterhead on it. No figures or debtors names/info. I suspect he didn't know. I can ask.
So how do you know they really have anything? This is where the lawyer would probably set limits on what they had by using the discovery mechanism. You mentioned that you worry you might pay these people and someone else might come out of the woodwork next week. That's a legitimate worry, I think. I'm not sure why there aren't more lawyers taking FDCPA cases using the fee shifting possibilities to get paid. It might take too much time to figure out who actually has a case. It would be more interesting to have the case law that supposedly supports the six year SOL. SOL issues can be extremely complex, some more so in some states.
