I've been doing everything the boards have been suggesting but they just won't let down. I have a mediation hearing set for next month and in the meantime the lawyers have sent me a ton of questions to answer. Any help would be appreciated. Here is what the attorney sent me: State, with particularity, each of your defenses to this lawsuit and with references to each state your reasons why you are making each defense. Do you have any evidence to provide that you do not owe Ultimate Electronics for the purchases you made? If so, please elaborate. State the names and addresses of all witnesses whom you intend to call in defense of this suit at the subsequent trial and give a summary of the testimony you expect to obtain from each. Describe with particularity, any and all documentation that you intend to produce at the time of trial to support your defense in this case and give the names and addresses of the persons who presently have copies of this documentation. Please state your marital status. if the divorce was finalized the date the decree was signed. State with particularity what amount you dispute, the dates of disputed charges, and indicate the reason for the dispute and provide all written eveidence to support such claims. REQUEST FOR PRODUCTS OF DOCUMENTS Please produce every document, which you created, send, or received related to any contest or complaint your raised. Poleaes product any and all statements , letters and other documents your received from Arrow Financial and/or Ultimate Electronics from the account berr the card number XXX Please produce any and all records, notes, letters, correspondence, or other documents, in your profession, if said document was sent from Arrow and or Ultimate to you. Please produce any and all records, notes, letters, correspondence, or other documents, in your possession, if said document was sent to Arrow or Ultimate. Please produce any and all recodes, notes, letters, correspondence, or other documents in your possession, if said document was send from plaintiff to you. Please produce every document, which you created, send or received related to any action you took to dispute the accuracy of the amounts claimed by Arrow as due on the credit card account, with the card number XXX Please product any and all checks, drafts, receipts, or other proof of payment, with respect to each payment you claim you made on the credit card account, with the card number xxx Please produce all documents or other tangible evidence with, support any allegation you have made in which you assert that the amount of the total balance due on the Account bearing the card number xxx is different from the amount indicated herein. Please produce all documents or other tangible evidence relevant to any fact, ground reason, opinion, or defense you believe you have againast the claims set forth in the Plaintiffs Complaint. Pleaes produce any and all records, notes, letters, correspondence, or other documents, in your possission, which support any affirmative defense as alleged in your answer. Please produce any and all records, notes, letters, correspondence, or other documents, in your possession, which support your position that Plaintiff is not entitled to a judement agains you in the amount of $3,000 plus interest at the rate of 10% per year on the balance, such interste accruing from the date of charge-off of 4/13/07. As you can see they are trying to bury me in paperwork. I also have copies of these same requests that they have sent to Arrow... I'm getting a little worried now. My mediation date is set for next month. Any help would be greatly appreciated it.
That is pretty straightforward. Just tell them what your defense is. (for example, "I never purchased anything from plaintiff," or "I already paid the balance," or "The statute of limitations is past," or whatever your defense is.) Sneaky. If you give them a straight answer, you are admitting you made the purchase. The answer to this depends on if you actually owe the money or not. But the burden of proof is on them, not you. They have to prove you owe the money. Give a simple straight answer. Do you have any documentation? If so, tell them. (And be sure to ask this exact same question when you send them YOUR interrogatories! Just change "defense" to "claim.") Object to this as being irrelevant. Give a straight answer if you have one. Or just say "I dispute this account in its entirety as I have no knowledge of any such account." If you have previously disputed the account, send them copies. Plaintiff should already have all documentation of their alleged account. They should have copies of any correspondence they sent to you. Object to this as being overly burdensome and requesting documents that, if they exist, are already in the plaintiff's possession. Same for the rest of the requests. Two can play at that game. Bury them right back. They have provided you with an excellent template for your own request to them. Send them on a paper chase. This will do two things: it will make it more expensive for them to proceed (so they might give up) and it will let you see exactly what evidence they really have. Once you know what cards they are holding, you can decide if you want to negotiate a settlement or go to court.
If you ever talked to them on the phone ask them to provide all copies of any electronic recordings/wav files with transscripts of any conversion that you had with them.
