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Collections Law/Old debt statute of limitations

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Expert: Creditwrench - 7/18/2009


Question
I live in Arizona right now.  An old capital one credit card assigned to a collection agency called me and wanted information confirming it was me.  The last contact with these people was in the year 2000.  It has dropped off my credit report.  This was a debt from living in Minnesota.  Isn't there a statute of limitations and I am disabled.  Can they try to go after my house or car? What are my rights?  Thank you.

Answer

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They can do all kinds of things to you in an effort to force you to pay up.  They can harass you to death on the phone, they can sell the debt to other debt collectors to start the process all over again,they can file a lawsuit against you to collect. If you fail to respond to the summons and complaint they can get a judgment and then start to seize any money you might have in bank accounts, they can put a lien against your home and your car,they can send a sheriff to your home to start hauling away furniture, TV sets and any other thing of value you might have that can be sold at auction to satisfy your debt. The next question is whether or not they will do any of those things and I can't tell you that. All I can tell you is that it is illegal for them to seize pension money and it is illegal for them to file a lawsuit on a debt that is beyond the statute of limitations which is 6 years in Arizona. Just like it is illegal for anyone to rob a bank or hold up a convenience store does not mean that it cannot be done. We all know that people do illegal things all the time. While police might catch and punish those who do illegal criminal acts, it is up to you to catch and punish those who do illegal civil acts. If they file a lawsuit against you it will be up to you to defend against that lawsuit. In order to do that you will have to either learn how to do it yourself or you will have to hire an attorney to do it for you. If you hire an attorney s/he will most likely try to work out a settlement agreement to either let you pay it off fof less money or s/he will just lose the case and you will be stuck for the entire bill plus the lawyer's attorney fees. Or you might get really lucky and find one smart enough to actually know how to properly defend the case. If you decide you want to learn how to do it yourself you can get the case dismissed if you can prove that the debt is indeed outside of the statute of limitations. And if they break the law you can sue them in federal court and make them pay you for your court costs, your attorney fees even if you do it yourself without an attorney and make them pay you a cash settlement on top of that. My students do that all the time.  

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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