Ask Me Help Desk - Judgement prevention

Judgement prevention

My daughter has just received a summons stating that a collection agency and their attorneys are attempting to obtain a judgement against her for a credit card she used to have. The amount of the debt has been wildly inflated... they want $2100 on a card that only had a spending limit of $300. We have tried to contact the credit agency and the attorney listed on the summons and no one will speak to us or return our calls. We want to try to handle this before a judgement is entered. What do we do? By the way... my daughter just graduated from college. She is expecting her first baby and isn't going to be working any time in the near future. In addition, the Sheriff gave the summons to a friend of hers, then sent the summons to an address where she just moved out of. The summons was forwarded to her by her previous roommate.

File Motion to dismiss, lack of proper service, with the court that issued the summons. This will buy some time for her to have the alleged debt validicated. Contact an attorney now.

Its not hard to inflate such a debt if you don't pay it. As Mr Yet said, you may be able to delay things a bit. But that will only be a delay. However, if you offer them a lump sum settlement of 30-50% you may get them to agree.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Distant_Vision

My daughter has just received a summons stating that a collection agency and their attorneys are attempting to obtain a judgement against her for a credit card she used to have. The amount of the debt has been wildly inflated...they want $2100 on a card that only had a spending limit of $300. We have tried to contact the credit agency and the attorney listed on the summons and no one will speak to us or return our calls. We want to try to handle this before a judgement is entered. What do we do? By the way...my daughter just graduated from college. She is expecting her first baby and isn't going to be working any time in the near future. In addition, the Sheriff gave the summons to a friend of hers, then sent the summons to an address where she just moved out of. The summons was forwarded to her by her previous roommate.

Thank you for your replies Mr. Yet and ScottGem. We are tryng to make an offer to them, but no one will respond. I guess we should file an answer to the court then keep trying to contact the attorney for the creditor. My daughter has no financial resources to hire an attorney, though.

They are probably hoping you don't file the Intent to Defend so they get a default judgement. Once you show you will fight them they may be more open.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Distant_Vision

My daughter has just received a summons stating that a collection agency and their attorneys are attempting to obtain a judgement against her for a credit card she used to have. The amount of the debt has been wildly inflated...they want $2100 on a card that only had a spending limit of $300. We have tried to contact the credit agency and the attorney listed on the summons and no one will speak to us or return our calls. We want to try to handle this before a judgement is entered. What do we do? By the way...my daughter just graduated from college. She is expecting her first baby and isn't going to be working any time in the near future. In addition, the Sheriff gave the summons to a friend of hers, then sent the summons to an address where she just moved out of. The summons was forwarded to her by her previous roommate.

Thank you so, so much for your assistance, ScottGem. Would it be better to file the Motion to Dismiss for lack of proper service, or a Motion to Defend?

File both Notice to Defend and Motion to Dismiss, lack of proper service, they will see you intend to be there and they will have to answer to the judge.