My husband and I decided awhile ago to clean up his credit. All of the collections have been easy to pay off except this one that I am having trouble with. Ill try to make this short. We contacted the OC to pay them, we knew we were way behind. They referred us to their CA. We contacted the CA which I believe is in house because they want there payment made out to the OC. Anyway, we gave them our new address info and they sent us a letter saying how much we owe, how much the OC will settle for and also stated that there is a judgement against my husband and if we want a copy to call and request the copy of the judgement. Well we cant pay the settlement amount in 30 days but are willing to make high payments on it. I called them and asked them what would happen if we couldnt pay the settlement amount in 30 days. They said then they would take legal action and take us to court.................. If there is a judgement against us then didnt they already take legal action? And I also asked for the copy of the judgement as per what the letter stated and he told me to look it up myself on public records, and he acted like he didnt know anything of the letter stateing that they would produce copy of judgement. after arguing for a minute he said he would look into it for me and contact the attornies and find out the court and all that. He didnt even know what court it was filed with. He also stated that it was too late to negotiate payments but that they wouldnt not accept them and if we have to make payments to pay as much as fast as we can. DOes any of this sound accurate??? I know nothing about debt and I am really lost as to what to do about this??? I am more than willing to pay like I said but I just want to know if its likely they will really take us to court after 30 days and no payment of settlement but we are sending a smaller payment today.
Go to your county circuit clerk website. All judgements are a matter of public record. Search your husband's name and see if he has anything listed. I don't know why they would lie about already taking legal action and then threaten legal action, but I've given up trying to understand them. Do that first and post what you find.
I just tried........... where we lived it was parishes not counties. I searched for the 3 closest parishes and none their websites seemed to have a place where I can look it up. And I dont even know the parish that they would have filed in. They dont have any of that information!
The judgement had to be filed in either the county that the CA/OC does business in (main office), or in the county/parish you reside in. If you have searched your local areas, then try the county for the address listed on the notice letter from the collection agency. There is a good chance that they did not file, especially if you cannot find it. Also, if they do have a judgement, and their next step is to go to court to get a garnishment of your husband's wages, then the amount taken as garnishment will probably be lower than your offered amount. My advice is to "scare" them back a bit, if you find out there was no actual judgement, then the CA cannot say they did (that is a legal violation), you can start adding up the violations by the CA, and threaten to take them to court for $1,000/violation. This should open up the negotiation talks a bit!
I looked and have not found anything. I sent them a certified letter asking for a copy of the judgment because the letter they sent said they would provide a copy if we wanted. How long should I give them to respond/send it?? Also, wouldnt a judgment show up on my husband's credit report???
If a judgment was obtained, then yes, eventually it would make its way on the credit report. The CA doesn't have a set time to provide you with that information, collections cannot continue until they have provided you with the copy.
