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Collections Law/Summary Of Judgement

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Expert: Creditwrench - 5/7/2009


Question
In 2002, I co-signed for a vehicle by which the dealership ended up putting me as the primary instead of the co-borrower due to my ex-girlfriend credit. After completing the paperwork, I and my ex-girlfriend made a verbal agreement which consisted of my ex-girlfriend making the monthly payments and insurance premiums. Unfortunately my ex-girlfriend did not hold up her end of the bargain she was consistantly late 30-60days for 3 years. During this time the lender was aware of my ex-girlfriend had possession of the vehicle and was making the payments. I sought legal advice and had multiple letters sent to my ex-girlfriend to return the vehicle for me to sale which she did not and made a promise to keep up the payments. I also informed the lender my situation in regards to retrieving the vehicle or voluntary repossessed the vehicle which they would not. In 2005, I was on sent away on active duty orders. During this time the lender repossesed the vehicle which I did not find out until my return. I tried retrieving the vehicle by paying the past due balance unfortunately the lender would not accept and wanted the full balance which I did not have. In 2006, the lender filed a lawsuit by which they were awarded a default judgement against my ex-girlfriend. The lender was just awarded a summary of judgment against me. My question is what does a summary of judgment consist of? Also, do I have a case against the lender?

Answer

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A summary judgment is nothing more than a court order stating that you owe the money and to whom. It does not say that you must pay. It takes a separate order known as a garnishment to make you pay up. No, you don't have an obvious case against the lender.  At least not under FDCPA you don't. So what to do about it? You need to immediately get any and all money out of all bank accounts of any kind. If you are being paid by electronic methods you need to start getting paid by paper checks instead. And don't cash them at your bank. Then you need some viable method to protect yourself against garnishment of your paychecks. You can call Max Hemmingway at (302) 200-3102 to get help for that problem. That is about all you can do.  

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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