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Collections Law/Removal and then Summons

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Expert: Creditwrench - 2/18/2010


Question
Hi,
My Question: 2 credit card accounts were deleted from all 3 credit bureau reports. I disputed with the 3 bureaus and after 30 days the accounts were deleted for lack of validation of debt. Now one of card companies (which was deleted) is suing me for the balance. Can a creditor collect on a debt after it has been deleted from my credit reports under FDCPA rules? I thought once a debt is removed from my credit, it is deemed a bad debt and there are penalties for pursuing this debt.  Thank you for your time. Not sure what to do in responding to the summons. John

Answer

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Removal by a credit reporting agency does not preclude the creditor from filing a lawsuit. Not sure what to do in responding to the summons? Prepare and File a response to the summons and a certificate of mailing and send your response to the plaintiff's attorney. That is the simple answer but other factors can enter into the situation and what you do. If the summons was the initial contact you ever had with the attorney and/or the initial contact happened within the last 30 days you might want to include a debt validation letter as well. If the local court allows discovery then you might also want to send a good set of demands for admissions. These documents are not hard to prepare and I can have them all prepared to go in less than an hour with no problem. However that isn't nearly the end of the process by any stretch of the imagination. If I were to be sued over a debt I would know in advance that I couldn't win in local court no matter what I did. That fact wouldn't keep me from fighting anyway. I'd give it all I know how to give it because I know that losing in local court don't mean the fight is over by a long, long ways. I would be using what happened in local court to come back and fight another day when I had a much better chance of winning.  

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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