I have looked around in these pages but I am not seeing the answers to all of my questions. My story is long but I will try to keep it short. I received a phone call at work a couple of months ago. It was a CA who was very rude and demanded I immediatelt pay her a little over $7,000. I demanded to know what it was for and that she not call me at work because I would get in trouble and that I would like her to send me a letter detailing what she says I owe. She said that the $7,000 was for "a bunch of bills you have made no attempt to pay". She further said that she would call me at work anytime she wanted to until I paid. She would not give me her name but I did manage to get the name of the company. That night I looked up their address and sent them a letter. I told them of my conversation with their employee. I told them I was "disputing" this debt and that I wanted proof of the debt including anything that I signed that was a promise to pay this debt. I also requested the name of the OC their CA license numbers in my state etc.... Aprox. three weeks later I got a generic check the appicable box letter with papers attached. The letter said I owed $1200 to a hospital, $110 to a gas company, and that my wife owed $5,000 to another hospital. The attached pages were as follows: For my hospital bill they provide a computer printout showing some amounts being charged and a number of payments including the payments I had been making on a monthly basis for the previous 8 months. For my wife they provided a a copy of a bill detailing a number of charges for services. There was a third printout that I am guessing was from the gas company that I could not make any sense of. I had talked to the hospital 9 months prior to this and made verbal arrangements to make payments and they were more than happy to accomodate. I started making the payments the next month as promised and never missed a payment. My wife had talked to her hospital several times months before this and they refused to make payment arrangements. She also disputed (verbally) parts of her bill because she beleives some of the procedures billed were not performed and that some that were billed were completely unneeded IF they were even performed. My wife was involved in an accident on a recreational vehicle, by herself. Amongst other things they billed her for a pregnancy test and at least two drug tests. She had her tubes tied 3 years prior to this accident, and showed absolutely no signs of intoxication what so ever. She was completely coherent and responsive. Any idiot could tell she was not intoxicated and not in need of two drug tests. Any idiot also could have asked her or I if she might be pregenant. The hospital would not cooperate and only said that if it was on the bill then the Dr. must have thought it was necessary. I wrote the CA a second letter and explained to them that I acknowledged my hospital bill and that I had made arrangements to pay and that their own documents proved that I had been upholding my end of the deal. I then told them that I could not understand the printout that I was guessing was from the gas company and that the bill for my wife was not mine and that they should contact her. I did this thinking that they would contact her and that would open the door for her to dispute the billings that she did not agree with and to work out payment arrangements. I reinterated that I was "disputing" the last two items and that I wanted proof that I aggreed to pay these debts. Then last night I got a summons. No other letters. None of the information I requested. No demand letter (or anything else) from the attorney who is now suing me. The summons claims the three debts above with no adjustment in the amount for the payments I have continued to make per my aggreement, and added $2420 for "reasonable" attorneys fees. I don't think $2420 is reasonable for drafting a three page summons. How should I proceed? I have an attorney that I have worked with in the past, but being a weekend I can't talk to him until at least Monday. I do plan on contacting him, but I would like the advice of some of the members here. Thank you in advance.
I am a rank amateur and have never heard of a single company attempting to collect for multiple OCs and from multiple debtors. I am bumping in the hopes that one of the gurus here will be able to give you some ammo - that sounds like a totally bogus summons. Good luck Poochie
about your phone calls send a limited cease & desist letter to attorney tell her not to call you at home or at work, your employer does not permit personal phone calls at work. get caller id for your phone (if you don't have it yet) and don't answer, and tell your wife also, any phone #'s you don't know. tell attorney to only contact will by using the U.S. Postal Service, so you can get a papertrail. send a validation letter (cmrr) to the attorney. also, ask for evidence that you agrred to pay these "reasonable attorney fees".
I have been doing more research....... Is the CA in violation of the FDCPA because I sent them a dispute/validation letter and they filed suit? They are supposed to cease all collection activity until they have given me proper validation. From what I read computer printouts do NOT constitute proper validation. About two thirds of the way down on this page it discusses what I am talking about. http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/debt_validation.shtml It is under the heaing "When a collection agency responds to your request for validation with a summons to appear (meaning they are trying to get a judgment against you)"
you say you got a summons, for what ? if it's for court, what is the court date, what are the charges, what EXACTLY does the summons say ? if it's a summons for court it has to be the county court where you live, see your attorney as soon as possible. don't ignore or wait if it's a court summons, you have to answer the charges and let the court know you have every intention *to appear*. start getting all the evidence that you are making payments to the hospital, call them or go there in person to see if you can get something in writing about the agreement. the other hospital do you have an agreement to pay or is it a legit debt. by the way, don't you have an HMO or Blue Shield ?
Yes it is an actual court summons for a complaint filed at my local counties court. It has a case number, a recording stamp from the court clerk and was served by the sheriff. I have 20 days to respond or they get an automatic default judgement. One interesting thing is that the last page of his complaint is the standard 30 days to dispute clause that is attached to all collection letters.
first of all, you should only be contacting the CA attorney by mail (cmrr), if it's verbal, they can deny you talked to them but then you can present your phone records (ok, if i didn't talk to you how come we talked for 20 minutes). if they admit you called they can deny you asked for validation. send a letter for validation as soon as possible. how much time do you have for the court ? your attorney can get a continuance because you want legal representation. explain everything to your attorney as soon as possible, if you can't delay the court date, you HAVE to go even if it's by yourself. the only way they can get a default judgment is if you don't go to court when instructed to do so. gather all your evidence (cancelled checks to hospital, whatever), tell judge you asked for validation because you have an agrrement to pay the hospital & you have been doing it faithfully for x months (this will demonstrate that you are attempting to resolve situation). the other debts, you can say you can't recall the debts & that's why you asked for validation because you want to see the agreement (signed) and complete history of your supposed account from day one (how do you know the amount they want is accurate without this history). and show judge letter where the CA wants *resonable attorney fees*, tell judge you are certain you didn't agree to that.
