I have several things that are charged off and some have gone to CA's. Would it be a good idea for me to dispute the CLs from the OC as well as DV the CA's? OR should I just DV and then sit tight?
I'd dispute them all through the CRA. If it's been a while, the OC might not have the info on the account anymore and it'll magically disappear. For the CAs, the CRA dispute might wake them up and get them to start calling you so then you can respond with a DV letter.
Yes, however isn't it also true that dispute should usually be saved towards the end or for a situation in which you're fairly certain that it will be removed since disputing is kind of a one shot deal? However, if DV and they fail to verify, you can always dispute it with that fact as evidence.
disputing isn't a one-shot deal, you just can't repeat them in a short period of time without some sort of compelling evidence. The process goes: 1. You dispute with the CRA 2. The CRA asks the creditor to confirm 3. They creditor can confirm/deny/ignore this request 4. The CRA says whatever the creditor says 5. If you dispute it after that, the CRA says, "hey, if you don't like it talk to the creditor. We just report what they tell us. Now stop bothering us with your frivolous requests." The fact that a collection agent didn't validate and didn't pull the tradeline doesn't mean anything to the CRA, it just means that the collection agent violated the FDCPA and it's time to take 'em to court. Remember that OCs don't have to validate.
I'm aware that OC's dont have to validate, but I was under the impression that if a CA doesn't validate they have to remove it. Or is that just leverage you can use to get them to remove it?
What leverage? You really don't have any leverage until you take them to federal court. That's were the rubber really meets the road. Anything you can get off without doing that is just gravy. The first step is to dispute the debt with the collection agency within 30 days after you receive their first communication with you by any means whatever. Then once they receive your demand for validation you dispute with the credit bureaus that they have reported to. If they answer and don't mark it in dispute you then have a cause of action. There are other things that can get you more causes of action and you can easily rack up 25 or more causes of action. Then you can start to move towards getting both the collection agency and the original creditor in federal court. Sometimes you will actually be able to get the original creditor in federal court and sometimes you won't. That depends on how the collection agency got into the act. But the bottom line is that by proceeding correctly you will find out whether or not you can get the OC into federal court before you actually go there. But you can get the CA there almost every time. Messing around with endless disputes is time consuming and often ends in nothing but pure frustration.
No no, I mean is their failure to validate primairly something to use against them pre going to court. If you have a FDCPA violation, I would think they would be more willing to work with you to avoid going to court.
Sure, in the ideal world. In reality, they are going to do whatever they can until a judge says otherwise. (and then they'll just stop doing it to you while they do it to everyone else). Threats don't mean "jack" to them. A summons, however, is speaking their language. And even then, they'll deny and resist all the way to the end. They count on the fact that you are more afraid of going to court then they are (sort of like a bully). When you show them that you have no problem taking them to court and beating them, they change their strategy very quickly but you have to call them on this brinksmanship. When I was negotiating with a CA about their violations in a small-claims court case, they said that they might have to have the case removed to Federal court and that could be very expensive. My response was "You know, I think your're right. It might actually be better to deal with this in a Federal Court. Do you want to write up the motion or should I?" He changed the subject pretty quickly and got back to negotiating. The law suit is like a gun. Don't threaten with it unless you are really intend to use it to it's fullest ability. i.e. until you have a summons, you're just blowing hot air at them.
While I must admit that the way you handled it worked out better, the way I would have probably handled it would have been to just do it and serve them with the summons. Then see how well they liked their idea of removing it to federal court. (LOL)
I did serve them with a summons to Small Claims Court and they were trying to talk me down to settle for 20% of what I filed in the suit before the hearing. Basically they were trying to say take it or we'll go to the big-bad federal court. Ironically, I was thinking at the same time, maybe I should take it to Federal court because I could find more case law to help hone my case. So by the time they threatened federal court, I'd already done a lot of research and it looked like a better chance at success so my response was "Federal Court? Bring it on!" As it was we settled at the pre-trial hearing. I could have fought it and I had a pretty strong case, but I figured it was time to take the money and run and get on with my life.
