Expert: Creditwrench - 2/16/2010

Question
QUESTION: I have recieved a summons from an Attorneys office for a charged off credit card debt. I want to respond to the summons by sending a request for validation (this was not the first contact however). I have also been advised to file an Answer-Contract and Proof of Service by a local debt attny that I briefly spoke to. I am unsure as to the procedure to do so and am afraid to make a mistake. Can you walk me through the correct procedure? (I spoke with the suing attny office and they offered a 70% settlement which we cannot afford at this time- We owe the debt to the credit card co. but i have no idea who the attny office is and I was hoping to provide more leverage in a lower settlement offer, am I going about this the right way?)

ANSWER: In all my years of helping people with such problems as yours I've never heard of such a thing as an answer-contract as a response. I can just about guess what the lawyer has in mind however. The contract part of the term implies what is known as an offer of stipulated judgment meaning that the plaintiff gets his judgment without a fight and you automatically lose with no chance of fighting. That's about the kind of stupid crap I would expect from most lawyers. That lawyer either don't want to stand up and fight or don't have the foggiest idea how to stand up and fight yet would like to get paid by you for preparing the paper work that tells the plaintiff you aren't going to fight about it. It would take him all of about 10 minutes to do that and upload it to the court via fax or however they do it in your county.

You say you want to respond by sending a request for validation. That won't get you anywhere either. All you will get back is a letter saying how much you owe and you already got that. The procedure is file a graduated denial then prepare a certificate of mailing and a demand for admissions and send the whole thing to the plaintiff's attorney certified mail return receipt requested and the paper war is on. You have a total of 4 possible discovery tools. They are demand for admissions, production of documents, interrogatories and deposition of witnesses. Your goal should be to catch the plaintiff's attorney violating the law and take him to federal court where you have a great chance to make them forget about getting paid and pay you to go away and not bother them anymore on this issue. That's the way to handle these kinds of problems, not running to some cock-a-mamie lawyer that will only cost you big bucks to sell you down the river.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much for your answer. If the amount owed is actually what I owe is there a problem with filing a denial? Am I filing with the assumption that I don't owe the attny office the amount but I do owe the credit card company that amount?

Again thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. It is much appreciated.

Answer
You can file a denial even if you owe the debt and the amount is correct. Your denial, if properly prepared is really nothing more than saying "prove it". Prove that I owe you what you say I owe. Nothing wrong with that. It is just that simple. It is the rest of the story that is not so simple and if you don't know how to deal with the whole nut then don't even get involved with it. Just pay up and be done with it if you can. If you can't pay up or don't want to then let me teach you how to fight in such a way that you at least have a crying chance of making them go away and leave you alone.