Expert: John Hall - 5/17/2006

Question
Hi, I live in Hawaii and Robert Paisola is also helping with information on collection agencies and needed media but...

1) I wonder if the orginal credit card company (citibank) sold my account to Unifund CCR partners, would this void my ccard agreement between me and citibank? any court cases i can review?
2) The plaintiff is using a credit card agreement dated 1999 as exhibit 1; reading parts of it, it basically says if there are any changes to the old agreement that will cause higher fees, they will send me the new agreement 15 days before next billing date. I will have 25 days not to agree to the changes or it will be seen as me accepting the new agreement. also if i use the card it will also be considered accepted. *problem*.. i never received the new agreement or any statements since 4/98. I never used the card after 12/97. Am i still bound to the new 1999 agreement?
3) I been reading Discovery Bank-vs-Owens [822 N.E. 2nd 869] My case is very similar, but its not citibank suing me it is Unifund. How can I aquire a copy of the sale from citibank to unifund and any contractual agreement between them? do I use a supeona?

I am looking for court cases that will help me fight these bastards. My trial date is 6/2/06  I won my motion to deny unifund and their a*****e lawyer summary judgement, now we go to court. They wanted a 3 mo ext to fly in a witness, I said HELL NO, I'm ready now!! Judge gave us 2 weeks (damn)to gather exhibits and argue the case. All I need are case references> I want to file a motion to dismiss because Unifund dont have all the media, they never sent me a letter (req by fdcpa). and they keep adding interest over the orginal stated complaint, which I dont think they can.
I know they will file a counter to that motion, but they are also calling me now to settle.

Answer
Hi, I live in Hawaii and Robert Paisola is also helping with information on collection agencies and needed media but...

1) I wonder if the orginal credit card company (citibank) sold my account to Unifund CCR partners, would this void my ccard agreement between me and citibank? any court cases i can review?

Will not void anything.  Collection agents or other successors in interest get assignments or buy other creditors accounts all the time.  They stand in the same shoes and have the same rights and liabilities on the contract as the original creditor.  

Insofar as “cases” that support this idea, it is so well accepted and commonly known I doubt you will easily find a court case that comes out and states the obvious.  But be assured, the contract is not voided simply because someone else bought it out.




2) The plaintiff is using a credit card agreement dated 1999 as exhibit 1; reading parts of it, it basically says if there are any changes to the old agreement that will cause higher fees, they will send me the new agreement 15 days before next billing date. I will have 25 days not to agree to the changes or it will be seen as me accepting the new agreement. also if i use the card it will also be considered accepted. *problem*.. i never received the new agreement or any statements since 4/98. I never used the card after 12/97. Am i still bound to the new 1999 agreement?

Maybe not -  but this will turn out to be more of a proof issue than a legal issue.   While it is true that they are obligated to do what they say insofar as the terms of the contract go, if they sue you, unless you raise the issue properly to disprove that you ever received any notice of the changes, then they will be successful.


3) I been reading Discovery Bank-vs-Owens [822 N.E. 2nd 869] My case is very similar, but its not citibank suing me it is Unifund. How can I aquire a copy of the sale from citibank to unifund and any contractual agreement between them? do I use a supeona?

Since they have already sued you,  you can get the paperwork through discovery.      There are also other ways that you can approach this depending on what has happened so far.  Call me and I can explain to you more specifically how you can handle this discovery issue.


I am looking for court cases that will help me fight these bastards. My trial date is 6/2/06 I won my motion to deny unifund and their a*****e lawyer summary judgement, now we go to court. They wanted a 3 mo ext to fly in a witness, I said HELL NO, I'm ready now! Judge gave us 2 weeks (damn)to gather exhibits and argue the case. All I need are case references> I want to file a motion to dismiss because Unifund dont have all the media, they never sent me a letter (req by fdcpa). and they keep adding interest over the orginal stated complaint, which I dont think they can.
I know they will file a counter to that motion, but they are also calling me now to settle


You may be able to do a lot better against these people than just countering them at trial.    This would be a lot easier to explain to you on the telephone.  I will not charge you just to talk on the phone and I can tell from your questions that you do not fully understand how the litigation process actually works.    Call me on my cell if you like.  I have a couple of ideas how you can put a quick stop to this, but it depends on facts that are not stated in your question.   Call me if you like.    661  492-2673