Hi, I recently received a letter via sheriff stating I have 20 days to respond to a arbitration award granted to CACV/MBNA. Unfortunately I do not know how to respond to this letter. I am so confused. All the reading I have done on the internet does not seem to help. The debt is older than 5 years, and I did not sign any written contract. Now I've seen sites where letters such as motion to deny arbitration and motion to vacate have been used in various arbitration cases. But I do not know if these fit my particular problem. I just need to know how to word a response so I can possibly defend this in court or something. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.
What is the SOL in your state? Were you notified of the arb hearing or whatever it was? They might be better than a Motion For The Judge To Stand In His Head. If this is a substancial sum of money or more money than you can pay, I would talk to a lawyer now and not wait until the 20 days are up. Arbitration is pretty unfair and if you over wait, that's reason enough to reduce the options you have. In all the reading that you've done online, did it include your state's laws on arbitration? How about the FAA? How about your court rules? Litigation is war, don't show up without any weapons.
The SOL in my state is 4 yrs, if written contract than 5 yrs. However it is been well past 4 or 5 yrs. and I have not signed any contract. I was notified many months ago about the arbitration hearing, but I was dumb enough not to respond. The sum of money is around $10,000. Roughly $7,500 more than the original debt. Right now, I would like to write something to the judge and a copy to the lawyer like stated, this way it can buy me more time, or possible vacate the judgement.
A signature isn't required for a written contract. You should read the laws in your state on what constitutes a written contract for purposes of the statute of limitations. Of course, if it is beyond the written SOL, perhaps it's not your first concern. When you were notified, it was SOL? Has it been determined, does anyone know, whether or not the normal SOL applies to arbitration? So $4X? That's a pretty high interest rate to still be within a four year SOL. There are strict limits on how long you have to challenge arbitration, at least that's how I understand it. I think this leaves many people challenging the very fact that they'd agreed to arbitration in the first place. The problem there is that courts seem not too interested in whether or not you even saw the contract that was changed. There is a case with a cable internet provider that might be illustrative. The person claims that he never got the contract and never knew of its terms. The internet provider claims it gives copies to each person who signs up. Apparently testifying that they do that is enough.
That's a rather provocative statement. Could you clarify it for those of us in the cheap seats, please? When you say Apparently testifying that they do that is enough, are you saying that all the service provider has to do is say "we changed the contract" and that makes those changes OK in the eyes of the court, independent of whether or not the customer knew about them or are you saying that the customer just has to say they didn't know about the change and then they aren't responsible for it?
Sitting in the cheap seats as well, so how would I go about responding to this arbitration being awarded to them? I got a couple of days left to respond and i'm a bit lost.
I don't know what you should do unless it involves getting a lawyer. I can support that. The following book deals with consumer arbitration: "Consumer arbitration agreements", F. Paul Bland, Jr. Call your local law library or try to find it at http://www.worldcat.org , which has perhaps libraries near enough to you that you didn't know about. If you've only got a few days left, I'm not sure that's enough time to figure out what to do. Is there a mechanism to ask for a continuance? Have you tried to get the people you are in conflict to stipulate to a continuance?
My comments related to 2006 WL 3251092 overturned by 256 Fed.Appx. 515, 2007 WL 4212693 (C.A.3 (Pa.)): "Background: Subscriber sued cable company in state court, alleging that cable company breached its contract with him by failing to provide high-speed internet services as promised. After removal, cable company filed a motion to compel arbitration. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Thomas N. O'Neill, Jr., J., 2006 WL 3251092, denied the motion, and cable company appealed." In this case, the customer was claiming that he didn't have any agreement at all. But since he admitted he was getting service from Comcast and paying, there must be some sort of agreement. Comcast simply testified that it is standard practice to give everyone who signs up a copy of the contract. The customer insisted that he'd never been given the contract. The court decided that since it was on the Comcast website and Comcast said that it gives the contract to each constomer, that was enough. See 256 Fed.Appx. 515 under West:
