Expert: Creditwrench - 5/24/2008

Question
QUESTION: Last night I received paperwork stating I was being sued by Midland funding, which by the way Love, Beal & Nixon are pursuing. My original creditor is Citibank. The petition from the clerks office said I have thirty-five days to reply with a response. What do I respond to? I know I owe them money. I tried to offer them 50 dollars a month, but would not except anything less than 100, then they called me and stated i could pay them half the amount to settle out of court. I have a lot of debt, and want to file banckruptcy, im awaiting to see if i can get assistance to file bankkruptcy with the indian legal aid services. Please help?

ANSWER: So you live in Oklahoma? Where at?

Question: Last night I received paperwork stating I was being sued by Midland funding, which by the way Love, Beal & Nixon are pursuing.
_________________________________________________
I've beat up on LB&N many times in various Oklahoma courts.
_______________________________________________________


My original creditor is Citibank. The petition from the clerks office said I have thirty-five days to reply with a response. What do I respond to?
___________________________________
I'd suggest a graduated denial for starters.
__________________________________

I know I owe them money.

So what?

_______________________________

I tried to offer them 50 dollars a month, but would not except anything less than 100, then they called me and stated i could pay them half the amount to settle out of court. I have a lot of debt, and want to file bankruptcy, im awaiting to see if i can get assistance to file bankkruptcy with the indian legal aid services.
Please help?

Above all don't file BK. Lots of problems and expense for nothing but more headaches.

My creditwrench methods get the same job done for a lot less money and
leaves absolutely no marks on your credit reports.

Why not join my Friday night conference calls to get more information.

Bill Bauer
405-684-9297
405-227-9423

The Creditwrench conference calls will start this coming Friday evening at 7 P.M. Central time. It is free and open to the public. There is no cost or obligation other than what it may cost you for the phone call itself. You can join in and ask questions or just listen or whatever you want to do.

Dial-in Number: (712) 432-1601
Access code: 508548#

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I Live in Durant, OK. When I respond what is it that I say? What should I ask for, DO I respond in a letter format about my account and why I hadn't paid? Im completly lost!

Answer
Courts have a very formal structure they insist that people appearing before them adhere to. The judge don't want things in letter format. The complaint gives you a pretty fair idea of what your pleadings have to look like. Dear Sirs: or Dear Judge: is not acceptable in court. They don't want letters or letter format because people have the tendency to write letters with lots of irrelevant material that does little more than waste the court's time reading it.

When the plaintiff's attorney files the case he follows what are known as rules of procedure or at least he is supposed to. There is a reason for everything he says in his complaint. He says as little as possible that will tell the court what the plaintiff is complaining about and the relevant facts supporting the complaint.

He establishes that the court has jurisdiction and how that is true or at least he is supposed to do that then starts telling the story. On such and such a date the defendant did borrow a certain amount of money from the plaintiff and has failed to repay the money lent plus interest.

The Plaintiff has repeatedly demanded the money to no avail. Therefore the court should grant the plaintiff a judgment against the defendant.

Basically it's as simple as that. Now the problem the defendant has is to present a defense which must be in more or less the same format used by the Plaintiff's attorney.

The court is not interested in why the defendant has failed to pay what he owes. Neither the plaintiff nor the court cares one whit that the defendant had a stroke or other disabling illness nor that the defendant lost their employment and can't find a job or is permanently disabled. None of that matters to the plaintiff nor to the court.

In most cases the defendant has absolutely no defense and all parties to the case know that. Therefore the resultant judgment against the defendant is almost a foregone conclusion.

So how do we turn the tables and make the defendant come out winning over the seemingly impossible? That's not an easy task as one can easily imagine but we do it all the time.

The answer is that the defendant has to learn what his rights are both in and out of court, catch the plaintiff or his attorney violating those rights and take the skunks to federal court where the only question before that court is whether or not the debt collector and the attorney has broken the law and violated the former defendant's rights under the law. That is almost the only way to win.

People have to learn that they have rights under the law, whether or not they have been broken and what to do about it. That is what all of the great social leaders have done throughout all of human history.
If it were not for people willing to stand up for their rights and the rights of others we would still have slavery today.

In order for you to win you will have to do the same. Use their laws against them.

Writing letters to the court will do you no good at all. You have to learn how to do it and I can't teach it here in this forum. I teach using the phone, the emails and fax. I teach one on one and step by step. I look over your documents first,  find any mistakes or errors in their pleadings and then teach my students what they are. My students also learn from each other on our conference calls each friday night.

A prime example of that is to be heard in the recording of last night's conference call located at http://www.creditwrench.com/05-23-081st2hours.mp3 which is an audio recording of the first two hours of our conference call. A student was discouraged because she wasn't getting the help she needed and so she got on the call and found out why she wasn't getting the help she needed. She got that help this morning.

She also got a lot of help and understanding on the call last night.