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I/we were just served a summons yesterday 6/24.Chase is the account holder.We owe them about $14,000.00. I am sure we owe them late fees as well.We have not made a payment to them since April 09.What happened was we were able to make all of our credit card payments( never been late), then all of our interest rates went up. citibanks rate went from 5.9% to 24% we have never,never been late on this account.Others went from 8% to 12%-14%. WE did not know what to do. The citibank payment went from a $153.00 to a $300.+ payment which we also could'nt pay now.So,in April we went with a company to help us negociate.A debt settlement program.we are only months into that program. So, now I am being sued for not making these payment to Chase. We always made our payments on time but, it got to the point because of interest rates going up and a cut in my work hours we were not able to pay all of them. I am upset, confused and not sure how to handle Chase. Thank you for listening.
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It really makes no difference what the circumstances were or are now. You have a summons and complaint to respond to and so the only question is how to respond to that and the probable outcome. I would suggest that you file a sworn graduated denial statement with the court and send a copy along to the plaintiff's attorney. I would also send a demand for admissions at the same time and if this were the initial contact from the attorney I would also send a demand for validation of the debt. If you are in small claims court then you may not be able to use discovery and if I were to get sued in small claims court I would find a cause of action which would allow me to file a counter suit against the plaintiff in order to get it out of small claims and into district court where I could use discovery. Then I would also look for other violations and sue the both of them in federal court. The reason that I would do that is because I would know that my chances of winning in small claims is zero and not much better in district court. That leaves just one way to win and that is to take them to federal court. If I ever get sued again I'm going to win one way or the other. It makes no difference to me whether I owe the debt or not. I'm not going to stand still for lawyers and debt collectors violating my rights and if they do I'm going to make absolutely certain that they will end up wishing they had respected my rights just as they expect that I respect their rights. I can't tell you what to do, of course but I certainly hope that you won't let them get away with violating your rights and I can almost guarantee that they will do so before it is all said and done.
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Answers by Expert:
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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