should have done research before this....just assumed if we ignored it they would drop it...anyhow...my wife had a rather unpleasant trip to the ER in July of 2002, disrespectful employees and misleading and overall shady service. Anyhow they sent us the bill and we didn't pay...never offically disputed it though or filed a complaint like we should have. We just recently paid part of this debt to once collection agency (seems to have been split between two?) the other CA has never actually sent any written correspondance...only phone calls which we of course have not answered. Yesterday though 1/19 she received a summons with a court date of 2/19. What do we do now? It's not a huge amount, we can afford to pay it, it's simply the principle..that and we want this off of her credit report...suggestions? recommendations? TIA
Call the attorney who filed the suit. Explain what you want to do. They will probably agree to dismiss the suit if you agree to remit payment immediately. Getting it removed from your credit report probably won't happen at this point, since you don't have leverage. They hold all the cards right now. Just be happy that you won't end up with a judgement on your credit report.
are they doing this legally though? I thought they had to contact you in writting and inform you of the debt, amount....who it's owed too...etc...but we've not received anything except for a summons....seems as though they skipped a few steps.
CA'S sometimes pay $0.01 to $0.10/$1.00 so they have a LOT of WIGGLE ROOM... PAY 50% full removal and agreement to never sell trade or give away the account to any other CA now or in the future. IN WRITING!!! If they don't agree...DON'T SKIP COURT...YOU WILL LOSE BY DEFAULT
Re: Re: help!! being sued to the lawyer or the CA? the lawyer told my wife we couldn't contact the CA anylonger....not that we even know how because we have no info on them, like I said...they never sent us anything on paper.
Re: Re: Re: help!! being sued george ... do you have a sample letter to that effect? if I can find an address I'll send one off. Thanks and I don't have the papers...working in philly..wife is in Denver....she's getting frustrated though and doesn't want to talk about this anymore...she spent an hour on the phone with the lawyer and all she agreed to was to drop the interest.....kind of strange...it's only $800...why they pushing so hard? The CA is OSI...not sure how to reach them..they have an office in Denver...should I mail it there?
Re: Re: Re: Re: help!! being sued http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=25 Look here...I don't have any letters...(PERSONALLY) I only can tell you what others have done...
Re: Re: Re: help!! being sued Well first of all if anyone tells you you have no power and that your adversary holds all the cards, question that advice. Once a suit gets filed against you, I believe the only reply is to countersue. Unless you can get a deal with this guy in writting. 5 business days after the initial communication they MUST inform you of your rights to dispute. There's a charge right there. And I'm sure there are others. You need to let these guys know that if it goes to court they won't get to keep what they might collect. In fact if the message that their potential liability outweighs the debt could be delivered, that is even better. You need to file an answer anyway, file your countersuit then. And, I bet if you thoroughly describe your case they'll be other things to include in your countersuit. Things that may be easier to win. Oh - and welcome. . .
Re: Re: Re: Re: help!! being sued I'm assuming 'this guy' is the lawyer and not the CA.....so should I send a letter to the lawyer or the CA? Is this completly in the hands of the lawyer at this point? thanks
Re: Re: Re: Re: help!! being sued The Atty. has been retained to further the collection efforts, yeah. He should be empowered to strike a binding deal. .
sorry bout the ignorant ?s but I've never dealt with this and hope not to ever again... would I send the same letter to the lawyer that I would to the CA...will the lawyer pass it on to the CA? or do I need format it directly for the lawyer....also where can I find a sample letter to meet the conditions George mentioned above? This site doesn't seem to have any letters of debt comprimising? Is it possible for them to simply remove the entire listing from my wife's credit, or is the best I can hope for a 'paid as agreed' ? And how do I ask for that? what's the legal mumbo jumbo way of requesting that? Thanks....hopefully once this is taken care of I never need to bug any of you again...but thanks for the info...if it can help us just get rid of this it would be well worth it.
Did the summons itself contain a validation notice? "Unless you notify us in writing within 30 days we will assume that this debt is valid, if you notify us in writing we will obtain verification of the debt." etc. If not, don't compromise if the debt is less than $1,000.00. If you have to answer the summons under your state laws, then answer it that you deny everything, and the plaintiff has refused to prove their claims. And COUNTERSUE for violation of the Fair Debts Collection Practices section 809, for failure to provide a validation notice within 5 DAYS after the initial communication, for $1,000.00.
so if I countersue and they drop it...the amount is less than $1,000.00, do they also have to remove it entirely from her credit report? thanks
If they drop it because there is a chance you will sue, chances are more than likely that they'll delete immediately. You need to look at the summons closely though to make sure that the validation notice doesn't appear in it. Wait 5 BUSINESS DAYS from the date of receipt (I normally allow 2 weeks to the day), and then you can be sure that the mail didn't just slow up. Look at it from their perspective, if they know it is possible to be a) out the filing fee for court, and b) out the difference between $1,000.00 and the amount that is in question... Wouldn't you settle and dismiss... Granted, some companies don't have the common sense that was given to the common house fly, but... I am giving them the benefit of the doubt. Usually when companies file a suit on a small amount, they do so hoping that you don't show up to give them a fight, so that they can get a default judgement against you. Let them know that not only are you going to put up a fight, they could lose money for their client if they continue.
well I'll have to inspect it, I've not seen it yet as I'm 1800 miles away from home. I just visted the Denver County Civil Court info page and I'm assuming since this is a suit for $800 it would be small claims...since anything under $7500 I think is small claims..and it prints in BOLD RED text "Attorneys are not allowed in small claims proceedings." if this is the case who will be there representing the collection agency if this goes to court? Are they just counting on us freaking out and settling because of the threat of a trial?
It would probably be in district court - call and see if they have actually filed, or if they just sent something that looks like a warrant. If they actually filed, you most likely have a set time to answer them prior to a court date. Get your wife to scan and email or fax you the warrant so you can see what's on it without having to deal with her - sounds like she can't handle it. There are ways to buy time even if they really did file, and it may or may not be real. If your wife gets upset easily she might not even have read it all, and might not understand some of it.
Re: Re: help!! being sued actually the whole reason we moved to Colorado was for her to go to law school...hasn't done that yet...but she did buy all the first year books, from what she's told me it is legit. Something that puzzles me though is the lawyer said she'd take $xxx.xx and not take it to trial but she couldn't do anything about removing the tradeline...if she is representing the CA aren't we still settling with the CA and not the lawyer and therefor they can do something about the tradeline? it's all confusing and I wish I understood it better. In browsing....distric court civil suits are for $15,001 or more, she's being sued for a bit over $800.00.
LOOK, the sooner you realize a couple of facts the better off you will be. The days of sending argumentative letters and demanding validation are past. You are now playing hardball. 1. The attorney is not bound by FDCPA once suit is filed, so a summons will not have the mini-Miranda. 2. The attorney is gambling taht you will do nothing so he can get a cheap, easy default judgement. 3. YOU NEED TO FOLLOW THE STEPS I OUTLINED in my post "Turning a Suit Into a Settlement". 4. YOU NEED TO FILE AN ANSWER TO THIS IMMEDIATELY, and also include a countersuit. 5. The only way they will go away now is if you drive teh costs of suing you far above what they will ever hope of recovering from you. 6. Start putting together your First Set of Interrogatories. Start getting familiar with your local Court rules - you can find them at www.findlaw.com 7. Once you and they get to the point where you are talking settlement, everything is on the table including removal of the trade line. BUT, you will have to make them incur a couple of thousand dollars in legal fees before that happens. How? Make their attirney work for a living. Motions, Interrogatories, Depositions are all documents you can file that the attorney will have to read and deal with, so start filing them. You have to learn how to use their own attorney as a weapon against them by making them incur huge legal fees. and most important of all.... 8. GET A LITIGOUS MINDSET.
