A little background...I live in Ohio. I received a summons several months ago from a Collection Company trying to collect on a debt that they had purchased from the original creditor. The court scheduled a pre-trial conference and I didn't go. So now I get papers from the attorney that is representing the Collection Company. The papers are the "Plaintiff's First Set of Interrogatories, Requests for Production of Documents, and Requests for Admissions." The cover letter states "In compliance with the Ohio Civel Rules, please provide answers to these inquiries no later than 28 days after receipt of this letter." Couple of questions... 1. Do I have an legal obligation to answer this request from the attorney? 2. If the court schedules a trail do I have to appear, or if I fail to appear will the court just enter a default judgement? Any thoughts on what the next steps are is much appreciated.
First thing to check out is if OH requires that CAs be licensed and/or bonded. Next, check to see if this CA posing as an attorney is licensed and/or bonded. There is a link around here somewhere to a site that has all the states and their requirements. Either Google it or wait and see if someone knows what I'm talking about. If the CA is not properly licensed and/or bonded, the next step would be to file a complaint with the OH attorney general. If they are properly licensed, or a license is not required, then you may have a legal obligation to answer the request. Was it sent CRRR? If not, the CA is stupid and you *could* claim that you never received it.
I came across some information about how there is a growing trend of CA's/lawyers??? who are acting in a similar way to what you described. In general, there seems to be one main name of a person based in the west that has people working under him and his company all across the states, and they are evil. The advise is to not ignore it. Get legal advise, and it appears when you stand up to them, they go away. They are snakes in the grass and preditors - they want to intimadate in scary ways and win or when challenged and if they have to battle, they go away and move on to the next victim. I found 2 sites that were helpful in this, but I don't know if I'm allowed to list them here - not sure of rules regarding that. There is a site about ripoffs that was helpful. There was another site about credit gurus that was helpful (they had a wall of shame you should see) Generally, it is a good idea that when anything has already gotten to the court, you need legal advise at that point. But there may be hope in that it may not be as scary as it seems, so take a deep breath, take one step at a time, and good luck.
