I had a judgment obtained against me by a collection agency who wasn't even legally licensed to collect debts in Massachusetts (Norfolk Financial) back in 2001, I was at the first court date and agreed to a continuance because their lawyer was not present and had someone else handling continuances for the day and missed the next date, well they just had a different debt collector seize my vehicle in Oct of 09, which is now been auctioned, after doing my own investigation I found out that the debt the originally received judgment on was not even my debt (the original debtor was not disclosed in the paperwork I received), I never received paperwork from them regarding the outcome of the case a payment hearing was never issued, and the writ of execution I was not aware of until they came to take my car, I have gone back to the court to try and get some sort of help in the matter but its like talking to a brick wall, I am wondering now since they have drudged up the past by taking my car, and claiming that they still have a writ of execution against me, and with the new information I have uncovered if I am still within my rights to remove the default judgment and if there is a court that is higher up in the chain that will listen to my reasons for have the judgment removed? Or do I have the ability to sue them for my the value of the vehicle they took on a debt that was not mine, and would that squash their writ of execution?
Thanks in advance

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Originally Posted by judithss

I had a judgment obtained against me by a collection agency who wasn't even legally licensed to collect debts in Massachusetts (Norfolk Financial) back in 2001, I was at the first court date and agreed to a continuance because their lawyer was not present and had someone else handling continuances for the day and missed the next date, well they just had a different debt collector seize my vehicle in Oct of 09, which is now been auctioned, after doing my own investigation I found out that the debt the originally received judgment on was not even my debt (the original debtor was not disclosed in the paperwork I received), I never received paperwork from them regarding the outcome of the case a payment hearing was never issued, and the writ of execution I was not aware of until they came to take my car, I have gone back to the court to try and get some sort of help in the matter but its like talking to a brick wall, I am wondering now since they have drudged up the past by taking my car, and claiming that they still have a writ of execution against me, and with the new information I have uncovered if I am still within my rights to remove the default judgment and if there is a court that is higher up in the chain that will listen to my reasons for have the judgment removed? or do I have the ability to sue them for my the value of the vehicle they took on a debt that was not mine, and would that squash their writ of execution?
Thanks in advance

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Your post is somewhat confusing but what I gathered is that a default judgment was obtained against you back in 2001 because you failed to appear at the rescheduled hearing... correct?

Most of the time, a creditor will not spend the time or money trying to seize your personal assets; there are too many loopholes and too many problems that can occur. Personally, I don't think that the judgment from 2001 has anything to do with your vehicle getting repossessed. I think a new judgment was placed against you by an entirely different creditor and they were awarded the vehicle due to your failure to appear for that hearing as well.

They cannot legally take your vehicle without a judgment against it; were you not notified of any court activity? Did you have a lien on the vehicle that you defaulted on?

I did state in the original post that I had missed the rescheduled court date, the writ of execution was issued to them in November of 2001, they sent me a copy of it at my request about a week ago which is how I found out who the original creditor was, my vehicle was seized due to the judgment that was awarded to them in 2001, my vehicle was not repossessed it was seized because of this judgment, if there was a new judgment against me I never received paperwork for it, and the paperwork I do have shows only dates of 2001, I did have a personal lien on the vehicle, but not shown on the title, they have told me the vehicle was auctioned in November of 09 but I have yet to receive paperwork on that either and the title is still in my name. I thought I was pretty clear in my post and wanted to give as much detail as possible thought I had accomplished that, Hope this clears up any confusion.

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Originally Posted by judithss

I did state in the original post that I had missed the rescheduled court date, the writ of execution was issued to them in November of 2001, they sent me a copy of it at my request about a week ago which is how I found out who the original creditor was, my vehicle was seized due to the judgment that was awarded to them in 2001, my vehicle was not repossessed it was seized because of this judgment, if there was a new judgment against me I never received paperwork for it, and the paperwork I do have shows only dates of 2001, I did have a personal lien on the vehicle, but not shown on the title, they have told me the vehicle was auctioned in November of 09 but I have yet to receive paperwork on that either and the title is still in my name. I thought I was pretty clear in my post and wanted to give as much detail as possible thought I had accomplished that, Hope this clears up any confusion.

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You have to be notified that they are seizing your property; they can't just take it in the middle of the night. Is the same creditor with the '01 judgment listed on the paperwork regarding your vehicle seizure?

You will not receive paperwork stating that the vehicle was auctioned. How do you know that the title hasn't been transferred? Did you contact the DOT in your state?

They(A Sheriff) showed up at my house at 9am to take my vehicle, the company that took the vehicle is Forsyth Law Office, the judgment was originally obtained by Norfolk Financial who was forced out of the state of Massachusetts by the Attorney General in 2006 for illegal debt collection practices (they were never legally licensed to collect), I called the sheriff for paperwork because they claim they still have a writ of execution against me which they claim they can collect on, I thought it would be within my rights to see their figures and a breakdown of what I owe them since the original judgment was for $569.00 I received a letter from them 2 days before they took my car saying I owed them $1026.00 when the sheriff showed up the bill was at $1,678.00 and then after the auctioned the car they said I owed them $1,031.00, and then last week I got another bill telling me I owed them $1,100.00. I did contact the RMV in my area to check the status of the title twice, once right after they said the car was auctioned and then again a month and a half later, and both times they told me the title is still in my name.

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Originally Posted by judithss

They(A Sheriff) showed up at my house at 9am to take my vehicle, the company that took the vehicle is Forsyth Law Office, the judgment was originally obtained by Norfolk Financial who was forced out of the state of Massachusetts by the Attorney General in 2006 for illegal debt collection practices (they were never legally licensed to collect), I called the sheriff for paperwork because they claim they still have a writ of execution against me which they claim they can collect on, I thought it would be within my rights to see their figures and a breakdown of what I owe them since the orginal judgment was for $569.00 I received a letter from them 2 days before they took my car saying I owed them $1026.00 when the sheriff showed up the bill was at $1,678.00 and then after the auctioned the car they said I owed them $1,031.00, and then last week I got another bill telling me I owed them $1,100.00. I did contact the RMV in my area to check the status of the title twice, once right after they said the car was auctioned and then again a month and a half later, and both times they told me the title is still in my name.

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If the company wasn't licensed to collect, why didn't you file a motion to vacate the judgment? Yes, they can collect because the judgment is still in place.

If they obtained the judgment in 2001, your state may allow them to charge interest on the judgment until paid in full. My state allows 12% interest to be accrued annually which would put your $569 debt at $1,115.24 not including any court costs or attorneys fees that may have been awarded. So the amount they're claiming is not that far off.

I don't know what you can do at this point seeing as they've already seized your vehicle and auctioned it. What type of vehicle was it? It may not be worth the headache of trying to get it back at this point. And just so you are aware, they can auction it off for a fair price but if they do not sell it for the full amount of what you owe, you are still liable to pay the balance.

That is where my original questions come into play, The court that issued the judgment/writ will not talk to me about it, I have told them the collector was not licensed to collect in the state and they basically called me a liar, I also informed them that I found out this debt was not even mine and they have basically told me oh well should've taken care of it in 2001, I told them how can I take care of it when I didn't even have all the appropriate information to find out the information, and because I signed for the original court date in June of 01 they told me "well you knew" even their paperwork shows Defendant to check validity of debt. So back to my original question Is there a statue of limitations to remove a default judgment, and is there a court that higher then small claims who will listen to me as far as my reason to remove the judgment. And if the judgment is removed can I sue the collection agency for the value of my vehicle, I paid $2,500.00 for the vehicle in July of 09, the vehicles value was around $4,000-5,000 and they claimed they auctioned it for $1,000.00 it was a 1996 Infiniti Q45T
Thanks again

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Originally Posted by judithss

... Is there a statue of limitations to remove a default judgment, ...

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No. Statutes of limitations are something else: laws barring litigation against you after certain periods. In this case the litigation was instituted in a presumably timely fashion. When the judgment was entered you should have immediately filed some sort of motion or appealed, which you failed to do.

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Originally Posted by judithss

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is there a court that higher then small claims who will listen to me as far as my reason to remove the judgment. ...

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No. The short period in which to appeal has passed.

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Originally Posted by judithss

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and if the judgment is removed can I sue the collection agency for the value of my vehicle...

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Presumably, yes, but I can't see how the judgment would be removed.

Well the information you gave me is valuable, I know there isn't a statue of limitations to bring a case forward in small claims, but I think its utterly ridiculous that this company has broken the law and are able to get away with it, I also find it frustrating that there isn't a court that over-sees small claims considering that are not even ruled by a judge, this company has made it a practice of bring frivolous law suits and adding at least 10% to small claims case loads in Massachusetts until the Attorney General finally said get out, I understand my car is gone and I will never get it back but I think stupid that they may be able to come and take more of my property on a writ of execution that is not even in their name, they were not even in business at the time that the original company that got the judgment was forced out of the state on a debt that was not even mine.
So thanks for the information but that is my 2 cents on the whole judicial process of small claims and how back asswards the process is.