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Collections Law/default on auto loan

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Expert: Creditwrench - 2/9/2010


Question
I have defaulted on my car payments, past due about 120 days. Lender has stopped calling and I believe they are probably going to the next level.  Is that court, do they have to notify me first, and if they do what are my options? Please help.  I just hate the idea of turning in the car and still paying for it.  I paid good for about 4 years, lost income in September 2009, before that I was having trouble making the high payments. They never wanted to work with me.

Answer

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Well, I'm in much the same situation myself. I'm looking to get sued in the near future as well. They want a considerable sum of money from me and of course, like you I don't have a single workable defense against their lawsuit. No matter what I do they will get a judgment. I already know that and I'm well prepared for it. I don't want to go into how I will end up winning in the end because they just might know about me and this forum but just because they get a judgment don't mean the fight is over by a long shot. There will be other court battles after they get the judgment and I don't plan on losing any of those. The additional problem they have is that they can't get anything even if they had a dozen judgments. You may not be in that position. You may indeed have wages they can garnish which I don't have and you may have valuable property which I don't have and so you may have a great deal more to worry about than I do. There is also the slight possibility that they may investigate before filing suit and find out that there is no way they can get any money out of me and therefore not file suit. On the other hand, I've seen plenty of other cases where that didn't stop them from going for a judgment and trying to get a garnishment even though there was no possible way for them to get any money out of it. The lawyers really don't care one way or the other because they are going to get paid whether they collect anything or not. The problem they face and probably without realizing it is that they are going to end up as defendants in federal court whether they sue me or not and that is the way you should be looking at it too. I believe that most collection attempts can and probably should end up with the defendant in local courts should end up in federal courts. Its the only way to put a stop to their harassment of people who can't afford to pay up.  

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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