Help with Debt Settlement

Monica,

Before you do anything, go here:
http://www.lawdog.com/state/laws.htm

select your state; then click on "automobiles and repossession"; in the upper right hand corner, select the red box that says "repossession"; if your state has specific laws regarding repossession, they will be on the page that comes up.

Many states have strict laws about what can and cannot be done, laws that the creditor has to follow, and some have laws stating that no one can make you pay anything after the vehicle has been repossessed and sold. It is important for you to understand your state's laws, if there are any.

After you do this, come back and tell us what you found out and ask questions. In other words, you may not have to pay anything, so don't start calling them offering to settle just yet.

 

All Good points, Breeze, but she also needs to check to see what is the max amount of interest allowed in her state by law for judgements. That can be different too and if the rate is greater than that allowed by law, she can attack the judgement itself and have it overturned.

I could also pull the judgement itself and see if we can't find other reasons to attack it

 

Bill, this person is new. One thing at a time. Let's see if they were entitled to a judgment in the first place.

 

Breeze:
That's what I am trying to do is to see if there is a valid judgement in the first place.

Her last post stating 15++% interest is very likely more than allowed by the state for interest on a judgement.

That would be the first thing to check on I would think. See if that's a legal interest rate and see if they charged her attorney's fees on top of that.

Usurious interest or charging attorney's fees on top of it is illegal anywhere and is grounds for reversal of the judgement

 

You definitely do not need to be thinking about settling on a judgement that is null and void upon it's face.

What you want to do is to fight the judgement by first of all going to the court house or pulling the judgement on line and see if there are any documents which claim to be affidavits.
You would probably find an affidavit of service of the summons, but that's usually in good shape and not to be worried about. What you want to look for is other affidavits. If there are no afidavits, you were never sued to start off with.

Don't even think about settling yet. Looks like the chances are pretty great that you don't even have a valid judgement against you.

You need to look into this much more closely and see what the facts are before you go paying them off. You might not even owe them a dime.

 

The legal rate of interest in Louisiana is 14%.
So right there, it looks like the 15.9 is above that allowed by Louisiana law.
Whether or not that rate also applies to judgements is not clearly stated, but I would tend to think so. You might have to ask a lawyer about that.

If that is indeed also true for judgements in Louisiana, then the judgement is a legal nullity to start off with and cannot be enforced upon you.

On top of that, your post states that they are charging you attorney's fees on top of the judgement and that is not allowed either. They cannot charge you attorney fees on a judgement and get away with it unless you let them.

I think you have a winner. And even more so if you have no affidavits.

 

You can use pacer to pull it if you want to sign up with them. If not, I can pull it for you if I have the case number, but don't post that here. Send it to me by email if you want me to pull it for you

 

LOL, Bill, what do you use to look up interest rates for judgments? My favorite site says 9% for LA - hmmmm is this incorrect?

http://www.cardreport.com/laws/judgement-sol.html

 

You can get the info online, but in the end, you would have to make a trip or two back there to do the filing or get an attorney to do it for you, which is what you really should do anyway. You would want to get all the facts together, all the arguments and then try to find an attorney there who would handle the actual court work for you.

If you don't have it all lined up and ready to go file, you will probably not be able to find an atttorney willing to do the leg work necessary to go up against the system.

Likely to be tough anyway, but I think I know some people down there who can find you one.
MAYBE!!!
No promises on that one.

 

You have to register for PACER and wait for the password to arrive via snail mail before you can use anything but the free services - LA does not offer the free services via PACER. I requested PACER authorization and password about 2 weeks ago, still have not received my password. If Bill has it, let him get it for you. Otherwsie you should call the clerk of court and ask them to send you copies of the documents in your file - they will charge you for that.

 

No, I think your URL is more accurate than mine because it deals with the judgements portion.

The one I used just gives legal interest rates for the states, but not specifically the legal rate for judgements.

Thanks for your input. Obviously better than the one I used, and so that makes it even more certain that we are dealing with a void judgement.

Thanks again.

 

Yeah, she should be able to get this one vacated, and if she gets a copy of the original loan agreement she can fight any other attempt to get a judgment (if LA allows them to go for another one after one has been vacated).

 

Breeze:

I'm no better off than you. Matter of fact, you will likely get yours before I get mine.

 

breeze:

Here is the link I used for the interest.

I wouldn't post it in view of the fact that yours proved to be much better, but it's always good to have different resources, so here goes, for what it's worth????

http://www.lectlaw.com/files/ban02.htm