Originally Posted by
jb1973
Hi there, I was served a judgement this morning for credit card debt for about 4500$.
There is no option for a court date to dispute this. I haven't spoken to these people before nor have I received any written letters. I do not believe the debt is mine.
Here is my hangup though, I have 30 days from today to respond/dispute this judgment. I called the clerks office and they said there is no court date, you just need to come in and file a dispute if you believe it isn't yours. She also stated that these rarely if ever even go to court. She said that its my job to prove that they are wrong or the judge will issue the judgement. That scares me! I have 30 days to prove these people wrong. What if they don't respond to my validation letter? Is there any other way to handle this sort of thing?
Also, I cannot find an attorney that will help me out. Convo examples so far today:
"Hi do you guys handle civil cases?"
"Yes we do"
"Great, I have a civil case against me from a debt collector, I just need some help proving this isn't mine"
"Ohh ok we dont do those, sorry"
Is that normal? I'm so uneducated in this area. Any help is very much appreciated. Thank you.
What they filed with the court against you is a "complaint"
Now, you need to file in response is an "answer"
(remember the court is an unbiased mediator (lack of better term)... they're not on anyone's side... and like 99.9% of judges, they MUCH prefer you two settle your little fight outside of court.
Make sure you ANSWER that complaint. If you do... I'll bet 10 to 1, they drop the complaint, otherwise, it will be set for a pre-trial hearing that you'll likely show up to and they won't show (been there, done that). If it does reach a court date, do yourself the favor I did...
Before you show up in court, type a nice little letter asking the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, include something about having to take off work to be here and the party that is suing doesn't even care enough about the lawsuit to show up themselves. Title your letter "motion to dismiss" at the top and ask that it be filed with the clerk of courts. :)
This will get your little scavenger friends attention if nothing else does and they'll be dropping their suit in no time.
(once again... the scavenger does NOT hunt living prey. They're not looking for a legal, costly court battle...
What the scavengers seek are DEAD prey. They prey on the weak who will do NOTHING when they receive a summons to court, except for ball up in a corner and cry.
If they want to play hardball... :) game on, baby!
But trust me, the $300 they probably paid for your $4,500 debt (that likely will never get paid [at least not if YOU know what's best for you]) is not worth the added expense of paying their legal team $120 an hour to sit in court arguing with you.
Answer the complaint, and likely your legal problems will mysteriously disappear. If not, you might need to take the added step that I did. Type a letter asking the judge to throw out this stupid lawsuit so we can all get one to bigger and better things, title it "motion to dismiss" and the judge will likely set a hearing date to "hear" your reason that the lawsuit should be dismissed.
10 to 1, they'll give up before that hearing date (like Credigy did with me), but if not... GO to court again and when they don't show up there, and the judge asks why he/she should dismiss the lawsuit, you can just point to the empty chair across from you in the court room.
You won't even have to explain, "this is not MY debt". :) save your breath for relating your victory story to other potential scare victims of the scavengers plot.