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Expert: Creditwrench - 11/12/2008


Question
My wife and I have a second mortgage with Citi.  I lost my 6 figure job back in Nov 07 and have been scraping by since.  We are behind on first and second mortgages (first is with IndyMac).  
About 15 days ago I got a knock on my door from and a Pinellas county sheriff served me a summons.  It is not a lis pendens as far as I can tell.  But I am not sure how to respond to this.  I can't afford an attorney right now since all my funds I do get in are going to paying for groceries for our four little children.
I am getting more and more business, but we aren't quite there yet as far as consistent pay (doing a couple of commission only sales jobs and I have about $2k in monthly money from doing consulting.  With a little more time I am sure I'll get back to where i can afford to get on a regular payment plan again.
How do I respond to this letter?  I have until the end of the week to get it filed with the court and a copy to the law firm who sent it to me.

Answer

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No, it isn't a lis pendense. There may be a lis pendese filed but that's not what the sheriff gave you. Neither is it a letter so quit thinking about it as a letter. A summons is a legal document not a letter. I'd just respond with a denial. I have a new student who had to have her response in to the court yesterday. She first contacted me day before yesterday and wasn't ready to work on it until about 2:30 yesterday afternoon. She had no problem getting it done and filed. She left for Los Angeles this morning and won't get back for a couple of days. We will start the discovery process and mail to the plaintiff's attorney when she gets back. No problem with that. Both the denial and the discoveries are simple things and only take a few minutes each to
prepare and mail off. Getting the whole thing done might take a couple of hours or so because I have templates that only take a few modifications to personalize them. Same thing with the certificate of mailing.  

Creditwrench

Expertise

Debt Collections law, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), federal law, how to properly answer court summons for collection cases, how to prepare federal cases against debt collectors, how to deal with debt collection phone calls.

Experience

I've been an active consumer advocate for more than 40 years and have helped hundreds of people win cases against debt collectors as well as helping them defeat demands for summary judgment lodged against them by banks, debt collectors and defeat mortgage foreclosures and keep their homes.

Education/Credentials
Paralegal courses for the most part.
I have been teaching people how to deal with judgments, mortgage foreclosures and other such problems both on and off the internet for many, many years. I am a Richard Cornforth information provider ever since 2000 and worked with many other organizations and causes since 1980. I was Oklahoma State Chairman for the nationwide drive to defeat the Constitutional Convention which was proposed by various factions within our federal government such as the Council of State Governments and the National Organization of State Governors who were working hard to organize a Constitutional Convention to be held in 1995 for the purpose of rewriting our American Constitution to be more acceptable to the United Nations. I worked with Senator Charles Duke of Colorado and Senator Don Rogers of California and many others across the nation to keep them from getting the number of delegate states required to lawfully hold a Con-Con and we were successful. I have worked with many other legislative issues in Oklahoma and have always been very successful.

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