I have a credit card debt for $15,300 which is a little under 4 yrs old, so the SOL has not been reached. I was sued by the collection agency and called them, and they agreed to accept $50/mo. from me. I told the lawyer I would need in our written agreement a statement that they are withdrawing the lawsuit and agree not to file a future lawsuit, provided the payments are made on time. He agreed. However, in talking to his assistant today, she said they're preparing the documents for an agreed judgment, and checked with the lawyer and he confirmed it. I tried to talk to him, but he hasn't called me back. Should I insist on them simply withdrawing the lawsuit, as we originally discussed, or is an agreed judgment the only way that this can be resolved? I have heard that sometimes agreed judgments are entered as judgments anyway, even if all payments are made on time, and I would prefer not to have to enter into an agreed judgment if it's not necessary. Thanks!
I don't believe you have to sign an Agreed Judgment in order to agree to a payment plan with the CA. In fact, you should be able to negotiate a payment plan using a completely separate contract. And as far as you credit report goes, I believe an agreed judgment is going to be just a damaging as a court-ordered judgment. So, I would keep insisting that they stick to what you originally negotiated in return for your payment. Good luck, and please come back to let us know how things play out.
You can count on the fact that the agreed judgment/stipulated judgment will be filed with the court and will be an actual judgment against you. You are pleading guilty to it before it ever gets filed. It is an old lawyer trick and works every time. Personally I would never agree to such a thing but I would ask them to prepare it and send me a copy for my approval so I could see if they followed all the rules and if they didn't I would immediately sue the pants off of them. In order to win it is absolutely imperative that you sue them in federal court for whatever violations you can find. It is the only way to win against a debt collector or an attorney. If you don't fight back you will lose every time.
