Hey fellow CreditNetâ??ers, Tiger00 here, still alive and still kicking, and with credit scores still intact!!! I have an interesting situation upon that I wanted to get a little feedback. A family member is being sued for an outstanding medical bill. They didnâ??t realize the magnitude of the problem, and waited until two weeks before their court date (which is now in a few days) to enlist my help. As time is working against us, I need to help my relative mount the best defense that they can. Iâ??ve already made a validation request of the CA/Attorney, and they provided a statement with a â??total dueâ? of less that $10. The cover sheet used to send the validation states an amount due of over $5K while the case is going to court for a little less than $5K. There is no contract, or any other form of documentation that has been sent with the â??validation.â? The statement that they sent me uses a running total of line items, but most interesting is that the statement contains a column for AMT DUE, but this has a running total of $0.00. There are, throughout the statement, line items marked as â??SENT TO LEGALâ? but they appear as credits and not amounts that are due. Iâ??m feeling this is the strongest part of the defense. I know that I have them already on the FCRA violation, but that is really not the primary concern. The main concern is mounting a valid defense, and having the tools prepared to do so. Unfortunately, as I was added in to help so late in the game the opportunity to respond to the complaint has passed. As well, the willingness of the CA to settle, given their set court date, is not one that they will entertain. So, here are my thoughts on what the defense can and should be: â?¢ The plaintiff has failed to prove that the debt in fact exists. They have not provided any documentation that links the claimed debt to the defendant i.e. a contract or signed payment agreement (using case law of what a proper validation is not) â?¢ The plaintiff has not substantiated the alleged debt. The validation mailed to the defendant does not reflect the amount stated in the complaint, nor does it substantiate the amount claimed due â?¢ The statement sent clearly indicates insurance pending on several line items, but does not delineate any amounts due by the defendant. â?¢ Request for dismissal based on lack of evidence What are your thoughts, and what might I be missing here? Luckily, this is being brought in small claims court, so the pro se defendant isn't railroaded persay.
How did it go? I replied to the original post but it turned out what I said didn't matter because it's small claims. So I didn't post it and it got lost for some reason. You said you liked small claims. I think, I'm Dumb, that small claims doesn't have any rules. I think that rules are really good. I know that people who aren't lawyers tend to think otherwise because they don't know what the rules are. But the problem is, without rules, you can be railroaded and there's nothing to use to object, no rules.
Oh yeah...sent into mediation, and the mediator took one look at what the CA presented, and my family member's documentation, and sent them both out with the requirement for the CA to validate the amount due. Case suspended until July, which is plenty of time to hit back with a FCRA case, as the OC is sending bills still. Round 1: Family 1 - CA/OC 0
