Collections Law/Unifund Group

Advertisement

Expert: Creditwrench - 5/13/2008


Question
My wife received a summons to appear in court on May 28th of this year regarding a bad debt Unifund Partners picked up from a Chase Manhattan account she defaulted on.  The card was picked up five years ago and usage discontinued within a matter of months because of non-payment.  

Details of debt:

Account Opened - 3/2003
Account Closed - 2/2006
Account Paid - 6/2005

Updated 9/2007

Credit Limit - $2,500
High Bal - $4,779

Source: TransUnion Credit Report 5/13/08

Unifund has the following listing on my wife's credit report:

Opened 9/2007
Closed 10/2007
Updated 3/2008

Original balance is stated as $4,779
They state the current balance is $5,281

Yet I am being sued for $5,222.74 + court costs.  

I've been told they can't legally add fees and interest until after a judgment has been issued.

The only evidence they provided was an "affidavit of indebtedness" that doesn't denote when the Chase account was established, proof it was taken out, etc.  I've been told it is the legal equivalent of "toilet paper" and is simply hearsay.

I can't afford thousands of dollars in legal aid, and I don't know if I can contact an attorney to start the bankruptcy process to halt this or not.  Searches for Unifund Partners has pulled up some disturbing information - It appears that they don't "play fair" and they will make life "interesting".

Answer
Seems that either someone is lying to you or we don't have all the facts straight here.

But first of all you say the card was "picked up" 5 years ago. Does that mean that the card was issued 5 years ago?

What state do you live in? I have to know that in order to tell whether or not the SOL might be up on that debt.  

Collections Law

All Answers

Answers by Expert:

Ask Experts

Volunteer

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.

©2012 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.