Recently I exchanged emails with a reader who went to court to defend himself against a collection agency. I thought it would be a good idea to release the contents of the email (after receiving permission from the author) to demonstrate a real life experience in a court of law. The debtor walked away from court WITHOUT a judgment against him. In court you have the right to force the plantiff to produce the documentation which would prove you ever entered into a legally binding agreement with the creditor. You have the right to request the collection agency provide a copy of the original contract, which would include your signature, that indicates you ever entered into an agreement with any lender. If the collection agency fails to produce a copy of the contract with your signature, there’s a good chance the judge will move to dismiss their case against you. Details of this email have been changed to protect the identity of the email’s author.
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Dear Debt Prison,
On May 5th, 2009 I was summoned to appear in my County Court as I was being sued by a collection company by the name of **Debt Collector. As sat and waited my turn to be called, there were several people who found themselves in the same boat as I was. Each of them agreed that they owed money and made some sort of payment arrangement.
When I was called the Judge asked me how I felt about owing this money to this company. I stated that I never heard of **Debt Collector until I received the summons and as far as I knew I had no contract with this company stating that I did owe them anything. The Judge looked at the paperwork and said, he didn’t see any contract and that I might have a point. He since dismissed the case, but gave **Debt Collector 20 days to come up with a signed contract between myself and this collection company.
Also, on April 10, 2009 I sent the attached file (letter private via author), through snail-mail, to **Debt Collector, the Clerk of Courts and the Federal Trade Commission. I know they all received my mail, as I required signature confirmation.
What I need to ask you is, is there a possibility that **Debt Collector would continue with this case in the 20 days allowed, in other words, could they possibly proceed unless they could produce a signed contract (not a copy), with my original signature and a signature from the company?
Please, if you have the time to reply I would certainly appreciate it. Thank You.
Sincerely,
For the debt collector to continue with the suit, a signed contract must be produced, indicating that the defendant ever entered into any legally binding agreement with their client. Failure to produce the signed contract should prevent the case from moving forward. This debtor handled this properly.
When you are sued by anyone… defend yourself!
i have received letters stating they were notified of a lawsuit filed in the district clerks office of the county i live in from Cach, LLC. I have not received a summons. Should i attempt a letter of validation at this point?
Hello I was wondering what to do about a collections agency that recently served my boyfriend on my behalf with a notice to appear in court to be sued buy a law firm on behalf of my original creditor. As you can tell were way past the corespondance part. :0( However the notice simply state to show up to court 20 days from the dated the letter was recieved if I was personally served OR 30 days if it wasnt directly served to me. Now… I just wrote a letter asking for validation of this debt and sent it registered mail. How do I know when I am suppose to show up for court, should I wait for more corespondence? I know that they are not allowed to continue to persue suit untils request in the letter have been forefilled but since when does that ever stop anyone? The letter was filed at the courthouse a whole month before my boyfriend was even served (for me). Should I attempt to contact the court? I know to only contact the law firm / creditor via mail both to and from, I stated that in my letter. I dont want them to mark a judgement against me in the meantime. SOS
I have been sued by a debt collector. my court date has been changed several times,i now have a court date for July 5th, i took out a line of credit in 2006 for 15,000 i paid them almost 400 a month for 2 years and llost my job.i paid them back 10,500 now they are saying i owe them almost 20,000. which i disagree with.my question is i have contacted the original biller and they stated that my account has been sent to a collection agency in GA ( fred Hanna assoc,) but the attorney who sued me is from NC,totally different agency.. i do not owe 20,000. and when i got the line of credit i did it by phone, there is no signature but the attorney has send me copies of my payment history. i have written an affividavit based on i never entered into a contract with the collection agency and the fact that i never communicated with them until i received the summons in the mail….what can i do
Kathy,
The SOL is the law. That doesn’t mean that the judge will uphold it. If the judge rules against you… appeal the ruling immediately. This will drive it to the next court. Then hire yourself a lawyer. I’d rather give my money to a lawyer to defend me and uphold the law… than to a bill collector and judge who are breaking the law.
Barry
I too had a judge give the debt collector lawyer another chance at me, and YES he has, we go to court MON and what he has submitted is a bill of purchase from the org creditor that has sold this to his junk debt collector firm and its over three years our SOL. The judge did not throw it out when i claimed this, and gave him a second chance, i am worried they are friends and looking out for one another, cause of this. I am the only one that was fighting it, because its out of SOL for our state and its an amount i have never owed a credit card ever they just made up a number it seems. So what they bought was a zip file from the org creditor that will have names, address and a number of what the debt was is what i have read. Nothing that saids i entered into a contract with my signature on it and its a credit card, not secured. I am mad i have to go back and if the judge is his friend…what will come to my SOL?
Alma,
Do have any idea what this would be about? Courts don’t contact you through text messages. I mean what court? What date? Who is the plaintiff? What number did it come from?
I would ignore anything that came to me from a text message… in general. But this one does have your name so I’m interested.
Barry
i have receive text like this ?” plaintiff vs. alma lopez civil case filed for the violation of R.A 8484 “ACCESS DEVICE LAW” and violation of article 315 for breeching of contract. we summon you to to appear in court for preliminary hearing and preliminary investigation.
should i ignore this ? what should i do please help
Quick question, I owed a keyspan utility bill from about 2 years ago, and keyspan was acquired by National grid because of the acquisiton, Keyspan is technically no longer the original creditor but the debt collection agency is now contacting me on behalf of National grid what are the chances debt validation would work for me?
Thanks!
If the debt I’m being contacted for is well over 7yrs prior(SD statue of limitations is 7yrs) and I’ve never made any payments or payment agreements then can the collector still take me to court to garrnish wages, file judgement, sue ,,, so forth???
I have had nothing but torture and heartache from this collection conmpany called IC Systems since it all began. My question is, can I sue? They took $150 from my account on a day they were not suppose to which caused an overdraft. Then when they debited it on the correct date, they said they never received it which means I had to file a claim with my bank yet I’m still out of $150. They then gave me a settle offer for $400.25. A day before I was due to pay them that money they called me and said I owed them over $1,000. They refused to give me anything in writing with my settlement offer. How can this company be stopped? I have since given them $798.00 as I am trying to get a home so I wanted to be done with it. After I gave them a $500 payment, a week later they reported it to the credit bureau and it made my score drop 28 points. This is unfair and they need to be dealt with legally. Please advise, thank you in advance.
Hey Pam,
No, because contracts are transferable.
I am being sued by a law firm for a $3,000.00 debt the originated with Washington Mutual but was purchased by Chase Bank (who hired the law firm.) Can I use this defense since my contract was not with Chase originally?
You could try and see what happens. You could also take a few bucks and go talk with a local lawyer, that could help a lot also.
That was very helpful, but can I request that even though I have been to court a few times? I didn’t find out until they already had a judgement.. so not that I have another court date can I request this before the date?