I received a notice of arbitration and I'm not sure what to do. I hope one of you can advice on the best way to tackle this. I would really appreciate any help. First, the bad news. I received this notice over 30 days ago. I signed for it on the way out on traveling for my job and I didn't open it till I got back yesterday. So I don't know whether I could actually do anything about it. On top of that, I found this forum and sites like this a year ago, but decided after reading that there isn't much I could do because all of my charged-off accounts are still within SOL. I did not want to get sued, so I decided to let sleeping dogs lie and not validate until they go past SOL. Big mistake? Here's my original post from a year ago. http://consumers.creditnet.com/Disc...lp-me-devise-my-credit-repair-plan-64417.html 1. Arbitration claim. Since it's already 30 days, it's too late to respond now. Worst that could happen is they will enter an award against me. Can they enforce payment or garnish wages with this award? Or do they still need get a judgement passed in a court before they enforce this? I know I screwed up, but what do I do now? 2. I listed all my other accounts that have been charged off on that post from a year ago. They have grown a lot due to interest. They got charged off in 2004 and SOL in North Dakota is 6 years. Should I go ahead and validate with them in spite of still being within SOL? Or is there something else I could do? 3. Unrelated question. For accounts that have been sold to CAs, if I verify the tradelines with the original creditors, would the original creditor just ignore these and have the tradelines fall off since they no longer own the accounts? Thanks so much. Tim
Yes, they still have to reduce it to a judgment then go for garnishment. That's about as good or better than just letting sleeping dogs lie. Demanding validation of the original creditors will get you nowhere now. The only viable course of action you have available now is to file suit to vacate their award in your local court. Either that or wait for the inevitable. But remember that they only have 1 year from the date of the award to file suit against you or their award is no good due to statute of limitations. So if you are close to or past the 1 year mark you should try to wait it out and let them sue you then motion the court to vacate.
So there's nothing I can do about the arbitration now? What do I do when they go to court with that? Do you guys think it's better to have all my charged-off debt validated? What are the risks involved? For my third question above, I was actually going to dispute the tradelines of original creditors with CRAs (without validating w/ OC's). I was hoping since the OCs no longer own the account (been sold to some CAs), they will not bother to verify them to the CRAs. So the tradelines will get dropped off. Will this work or just a waste of time? Tim
I think I said that you need to move to vacate the award now. If you don't do that then they will easily get a judgment and you either pay up or get garnished. At some point in time, yes. If nothing else it can help you get out of paying extra income taxes later down the road. I won't comment your 3rd question since there are others here who can give you better answers than I can.
There are some things you can do, but they are the same as a legal proceeding. You cannot "avoid" the arbritration, but you do need to prepare, and defend yourself. You will need to proceed with the advice given by Cap1sucks. You are coming upon that little clause we all sign off on blindly, to give up a legal court setting for any differences that arise. Approach your arbitration just like it was a court case (as it is..), You should try to request validation, but remember that you are well past the time where they (legally) must provide validation. But, this is a basic step which you need to take for your case. Again, since your account is going to arbitration, I doubt they will provide any validation, but they should be presenting it at your arbitration session. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Most likely they will be verified by the OCs, but...you never know until you try. This is completely outside of your case, but for the sake of your credit reports, it is a basic step which you should do anyway.
Thanks a lot for your advice, cap1sucks and bizwiz41. I appreciate it. A lot has happened since I last posted. We lost our main client account at work, and as a result, I'm expecting to be laid off. I guess, all hell breaks lose all at the same time. Anyway. Because I was so busy at work trying to secure the client account, I haven't had time to handle this matter. Besides I wasn't quite sure how to proceed since it was already too late for me to reply to arbitration when I originally posted. cap1sucks, you told me that I need to move to vacate the award. How do I do that exactly? Can you give me some pointers? I received the results of arbitration from National Arbitration Forum. Code: decision: 1. the arbitrator knows of no conflicts of interest that exist. 2. this matter involves interstate commerce and the federal arbitration act governs this arbitration. 3. the claim was properly served on the respondent by claimant in accordance with Rule 6, including a Notice of Arbitration. 4. On or before 06/18/2007 the Parties entered into a written agreement to arbitrate their dispute. 5. No party has asserted that this Arbitration Agreement is invalid or unenforceable. 6. The Parties' Arbitration Agreement is valid and enforceable and governs all the issues in dispute. 7. This matter is arbitrable under the terms of the Parties' Arbitration Agreement and the law. 8. This matter has proceeded in accord with the applicable Forum Code of Procedure Rules. 9. The evidence submitted supports the issuance of this Award. 10. The applocable substantive law supports the issuance of the Award. Therefore, the Arbitrator ISSUES: An Award in favor of the Claimant for a total amount of $4985.55 How do I respond and who do I respond to? Please help. Thank you, Tim
The only thing you can do if you hope to beat this thing is to file a case against the award winner You should have done that a long time ago. As it is now you are going to have a rough time of it indeed. Motion to vacate the award against NAF is also a possibility. Maybe the best way to go. One possibility is motion to vacate based on denial of due process of law. Well, there is no use responding to NAF or to the Plaintiff at this time. It will get you nowhere. What you can expect is that the plaintiff law firm will try to reduce it to summary judgment in your local court and if you do nothing you will lose that and then they will come after your check and any other assets they can find to get paid with. Of course, if you are going to lose your job you are going to have a rough time of it indeed.
