I have a question on a judgement that my wife had against her. We received a court notice advising us of the lawsuit and to provide an ANSWER if we did not agree. I wrote up an ANSWER and advised that we owed the money to Capitol One but that I disagreed with the amount of interest they were charging. That was the last piece of mail I ever received. The attny office called us last week and advised that the judgement was in place and I set up a payment plan. My question is this - I never recvd a court date to argue anything. Is the attny office (and the court) supposed to provide me with a chance to go to court to plead my case or did they just get a judgement because we owed money anyway. I never recvd a court date and was never able to represent myself (and my wife). Was this legal? We have set up a payment arrangement with Captitol One but I wanted to confirm if what they did was legal or not.

Before I paid anything to the attorneys, I would ask them what court the judgment was secured in and then contact the court.

Although we know that debt collectors would never fib while trying to collect from you, I would verify it. If they did get a judgment, ask when the court date was and tell them that you never received a summons.

If you were unable to represent yourself, you should ask what you need to do to get it overturned.

If there is no actual judgment, I would file a complaint with your state's Atty. General's office and the Federal Trade Commission. Here is a link with more info Fair Debt Collection (http://ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre18.shtm)

LG

PS. You could also pull copies of your wife's credit report from www.annualcreditreport.com and see if there is a judgment under the public records area. You should also look to see how Capital One is reporting it. They are listed as CapOne (Capone) if that gives you any insight...