AboutCreditwrench 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.
Question my husband owned and operated a small remolding business for several years. due to the economy he has shut it down. He has applied for jobs, with no hire yet. I am working but make very little, enough to pay utilities, groc., and gas. We are headed for foreclosure if my husband doesn't obtain a job soon .
We received a civil summons today from the circuit court of Alabama, for household finance where we had a personal loan. We are in default as well as several credit cards. I just can't pay it all! here's the questions: how do I answer this ? , or what do I do? How far can they go w/ this? as well as the others that will be coming.. And are personal debts and cc debt unsecured debt? thanks , worried worried worried......
Above all, keep your home mortgage up to date and don't worry about those other debts. You can work around them but you aren't going to work around losing your home very easily. Yes, I do work with people who are in foreclosure all the time and one very important fact is that those who stand up and fight keep their homes even if they are in default but those who just give up lose every time. But even more important is that those who keep their mortgages up to date don't have to go through the hassle of a foreclosure, moving out and trying to find some other place to live. So keep that mortgage up at all costs. That has to come first. Then you received a civil summons. You need to learn how to fight that too. May seem like a lot to fight but one advantage of learning how to fight the civil summons correctly will give you a huge leg up if you do end up having to fight for your home as well. I'm sorry to have to tell you that no matter what you do in the local court it will not go well for you. The reason that is so is because you know that you owe the debt, the lawyer knows you owe the debt and so does the judge. So the outcome is almost inevitable but that is not a reason to just give up. After all, when the going gets tough the tough get going. So how to do that? The truth is that the lawyer is a 3rd party debt collector and is therefore subject to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Most lawyers don't understand that law very well. That fact is the way you can defeat the lawyer against all odds. Use what you know and what he don't against him and you can win. It isn't even hard. To start with you will need to learn how to prepare a response to the summons, a certificate of mailing and a good sized list of admissions you demand that the plaintiff answer. You will probably also want to prepare a good validation letter. Sounds like a lot but I know how to teach you all that you need to know in just a few hours. You will also have to learn how to submit your paperwork to the court. The nice part about it is that once you learn how to do those things you will always know how to do it and won't even have to hire a lawyer to do it for you. While you can count on losing in local court you can also count on the fact that if you catch the lawyer breaking the rules you can sue him and the debt collector in federal court and win. All you have to do is learn how and be willing to put just a bit of money into it as an investment. It will be one of the best investments you ever made.
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