I sent my demand for admissions to the Plaintiff and of course got my demand for admissions to the Plaintiff before they had a chance to send me theirs. And quite naturally I got back nothing but obfuscation and pettifoggery. No usable answers whatever. Or at least one would think so at first glance but a careful study of those non-responses can and probably will lead to several glaring errors on the part of the lawyer that did the response. Those errors can be their undoing. Those non-responses can easily be turned around and used against them. The first rough draft of my findings can be found on my Google Docs site. Just click on the link in my signature line and see how it is done. The results of my findings in this case may or may not get their case dismissed but surely will get the lawyer very, very embarrassed. The also ought to make excellent ammunition for a federal lawsuit against the attorney for providing false and misleading information to a consumer. I'm going to start preparing my federal case right away.
Hello: I had three credit cards in collection. One received a Judgment. After that judgment, I started studying the law and forums. The next 2 collection agencies: $29K (with 8% interest for many many years), I sent Validation letters through the court (since they opened a case). They ignored the first and the second Validation Requests. I moved for Dismissal based on Fair Credit Act. The judge withheld judgment for 7 days for the Plaintiff to respond. They did respond and said that they had received a default judgment, which I proved that they had NOT received such a judgment. Now there is a hearing scheduled for June 2010. I attempted to look them up - the Collection Agency -- to make sure they had registered with the Secretary of my state (Indiana). I cannot find them. I am now filing a motion - before the June hearing -- for proof that they have registered as a collection agency in my state. The next one is $4K with all the interest for many many years. I sent them Validation letters, again through the courts. They have ignored all of my validation letters and even Returned to Sender one of my filings to the courts. I filed an affidavit with copies of the RTS to the court. There was a hearing set for this case in May. I went, they did not show up. The Court staff said a local lawyer (the CA is out of Louisville, KY and they hired a local attorney) had called the court administrative staff just before the hearing and said that they were faxing in a Continuance Motion. I had forgotten a very important document so I told the Court staff that I would not object "if" the Plaintiff filed for a continuance. Much later the court staff came out and told me that the Plaintiff never sent the fax or request, but that the judge was continuing the case anyway. While I was upset that the judge continued without the formal request, I was at fault first for asking when I already knew they were not going to show up and perhaps the staff may have misunderstood my statement of "if" they file a motion to continue. I immediately filed an Affidavit --I filed the course of events on the morning of the hearing and the fact that the plaintiff did not show up or formally request a motion for a continuance and that the Judge continued the case without the plaintiff's formal motion. Of course, I sent the motion to the Plaintiff and as of this writing they have not sent RTS, nor do I have a new court date. Time will tell. Any thoughts on this???
I just checked. YES they do require registration and $5K bond, bla bla. So, I looked up both companies. One is registered and the second one is NOT. So, what does this mean?
It really don't mean a thing to you unless you know how to use the information to your best advantage. The first thing you need to understand is that complaining to the state will do you no good at all. You have no right of action against them since the state is the injured party, not you. So you complain to the state, the state gets on them and makes them get in compliance, maybe fines them for non compliance but what does that get you? Nothing! Maybe a feather in your cap or something but nothing meaningful. You are far better off to wait until they sue you, file your response with the court, do all that correctly and when you get to trial tell the judge that they can't bring a lawsuit because they are not licensed to collect debts in your state. The judge will come unglued. He can either dismiss the case or demand that they go get licensed before the case can proceed. He will give them maybe 30 days max to show that they are in compliance and if they don't bring forth full proof of compliance within the time allotted by the judge the case will be dismissed. You gain nothing if you complain to the state but you can get some real mileage out of complaining to the judge. Want to get some real mileage out of it? Then after you tell the judge and the court takes whatever action it chooses file a federal case on them for doing that which it was illegal for them to do. Then see how well they like that one.
