I got a CA/lawyer letter end of Dec 2005 and I wrote back asking for DV, kept the green card...I never heard back from them and now they have sent a copy of summons and complaint plus the amt they are suing for is different than the amt they claimed I owe them in the first letter...Do I put in the answer that they did not prove validation? Any THoughts?
Try this: When a collection agency responds to your request for validation with a summons to appear (meaning they are trying to get a judgment against you) 1/17/2002: These sneaky collection agencies are starting to catch on to the debt validation concept. (No doubt there is some kind of collection agency newsletter going around telling these folks about the whole process.) I've heard from my readers that some collection agencies are starting to respond to validation requests with summons to appear in court. There is precedent which says that a collection agency cannot even file suit against you if they haven't validated the debt. If this happens to you, you may cite the case: http://www.state.in.us/judiciary/opinions/archive/03260101.ewn.html The appeals court determined: "Brennan (plaintiff collection agency attorney) violated 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(b) when he obtained a default judgment against Spears (defendant) after Spears had notified Brennan in writing that the debt was being disputed and before Brennan had mailed verification of the debt to Spears." This means that you have an absolute defense in court to deny them judgment if they still have not validated the debt. Once you get your FDCPA dispute letter in, the collector cannot even get a judgment until they satisfy the FDCPA law. The appeals court overturned the default summary judgment in part because the collection agency lawyer did not meet the rules of the FDCPA. This could be grounds for getting a default judgment vacated. It's also another violation of the FDCPA and you can collect $1,000 from them. http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/debt_validation.shtml
