Ask Me Help Desk - I'm being sued by a credit card company

I'm being sued by a credit card company

I received a summons in the mail 2 days ago. I am being sued by capital one for 2,212.00 + court and attorneys fees from a 500.00 credit card I had over 6 years ago.They have been trying to locate me for about a year, but due to moving 3 times they have not been able to locate me till now. They have already filed a judgment on me dated 5/2009, it showed up on my credit report that I just ran. I was unable to pay it due to being on unemployment twice and three job changes in those 6 years, my wife is not working at this time and we are living on my 600.00 pay check with a family of 4. My question is what can I do? I would pay the 500.00 but in no way can afford to pay 2,212.00 + court, attorneys fees or have my paycheck garnished, we are scraping by now. What are my best options? The court date is in 10 days and I'm not sure where to go from here. Do they take in consideration your life's situation or is it pay up or shut up? Can I talk to them and pay just the 500.00 it is really what I owe? Please help I need to figure out some options here and quick.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mic148

I received a summons in the mail 2 days ago. I am being sued by capital one for 2,212.00 + court and attorneys fees from a 500.00 credit card I had over 6 years ago.They have been trying to locate me for about a year, but due to moving 3 times they have not been able to locate me till now. They have already filed a judgment on me dated 5/2009, it showed up on my credit report that I just ran. I was unable to pay it due to being on unemployment twice and three job changes in those 6 years, my wife is not working at this time and we are living on my 600.00 pay check with a family of 4. My question is what can I do? I would pay the 500.00 but in no way can afford to pay 2,212.00 + court, attorneys fees or have my paycheck garnished, we are scraping by now. What are my best options? The court date is in 10 days and I'm not sure where to go from here. Do they take in consideration your life's situation or is it pay up or shut up? Can I talk to them and pay just the 500.00 it is really what I owe? Please help I need to figure out some options here and quick.

We have a number of issues here, the most important being that you're claiming you're being sued for something that you were apparently already sued for. If they have a judgment against you, they cannot sue you again for the same debt.

You need to find out what's going on, clarify if it is in fact the same debt or simply the same creditor with different accounts.

Where are you located? Statute of limitations varies by state; depending on the last payment you sent them or the last time you used the account, they may not be able to legally sue you.

And no, you're not going to get $2,000 knocked down to $500. You ran away from them, remember? Now you're looking at late fees, interest, court costs, potential attorney costs, etc. You might be lucky enough to get it knocked down to $1,500 but that's if you can pay it in full - otherwise they'll probably just go for the judgment and collect all of their money.

No the summons is for the same account that is why I was confused to see it on my credit report. How can they go ahead with court proceedings and file a judgment when I was never served in 5/2009 and now send me another summons on the same account. As of 11/2004 I was 30 days past due and live in Illinois.

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Originally Posted by mic148

No the summons is for the same account ...

As this8384 already said, if they already have a judgment against you, they cannot get another judgment against you on the same account. Your response is confusing: you were never served, but they have a judment against you?

How do you know this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by AK lawyer

As this8384 already said, if they already have a judgment against you, they cannot get another judgment against you on the same account. Your response is confusing: you were never served, but they have a judment against you?

How do you know this?

It was on my credit report that I just ran under Judgments with a case# and a date filed. I know its confusing I do not understand it either. The summons I received was an alias summons and the paperwork signed by capital one was dated 2/2009.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mic148

It was on my credit report that I just ran under Judgments with a case# and a date filed. I know its confusing I do not understand it either. The summons I received was an alias summons and the paperwork signed by capital one was dated 2/2009.

Get a copy of your credit report. Call the courthouse that listed the judgment and find out what's going on. You might be able to have the suit dismissed on grounds of improper service, depending on your state law.

My state allows publication summons, so you don't always have to be personally served in order for them to get a judgment. However, it is not legal ANYWHERE to get two judgments for one debt.

OK so I just looked into the case #s and the case # on my credit report and the case# on the summons are different but it is still for the same account.

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Originally Posted by mic148

ok so I just looked into the case #s and the case # on my credit report and the case# on the summons are different but it is still for the same account.

That's because it's one account, two different cases. You need to contact the courthouse where the original judgment is filed and get the information from them - the creditor is trying to sue you twice for the same debt, which they cannot do.

I'm suspecting that a suit was filed in 2009, but because you couldn't be found they never went to court on it, though I know that's unusual.

There are plenty of threads here that detail how to proceed, but you first need to know if they got a judgement or not.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottGem

I'm suspecting that a suit was filed in 2009, but because you couldn't be found they never went to court on it, though I know that's unusual.

There are plenty of threads here that detail how to proceed, but you first need to know if they got a judgement or not.

I researched it today and found the court records, it says that the case status is open and report status is open and it was dated 5/09. So does this mean they filed it and because they could not locate me it just sat on the court records? Is this normal for it to appear on my credit report as a judgement and can a case just really sit open like that? Where do I go from here?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mic148

I researched it today and found the court records, it says that the case status is open and report status is open and it was dated 5/09. So does this mean they filed it and because they could not locate me it just sat on the court records? Is this normal for it to appear on my credit report as a judgement and can a case just really sit open like that? Where do I go from here?

One more thing does the statue of limitations count from the date they filed it on 5/09 or from this point, because as of now we are at 5yr 8 mo from 30 days of the last payment? Thank you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mic148

one more thing does the statue of limitations count from the date they filed it on 5/09 or from this point, because as of now we are at 5yr 8 mo from 30 days of the last payment? thank you.

I'm surprised it has remained open for over a year without any activity. I'm also surprised that it's showing up as a judgment if the case is still open. Did you actually contact the courthouse about this, or this is just what you've found through online research?

SOL is tricky here. They filed a lawsuit, which technically would have stopped SOL on that date - however, you were never served and it appears that the case wasn't closed.

I still say contact the courthouse to be absolutely positive what happened with the old case. It's not going to do any harm.

So I did get a hold of the clerks office and found out the case is sitting open, she didn't think there was anything abnormal about that and said cases can sit open like that as long as they want. The reason it is on my credit report is because the Equifax company goes of computer files of cases and not the final judgment paperwork. I was told all I have to do is fill out paperwork and we can get of my credit report. So thank you all for your help, now I just have to figure out my best choice on how I can resolve this and what my argument should be in court.

One more question, if I closed the account back in 2003 and at that time the debt was under 1,000. I thought when you closed an account it froze it at that amount? So how did I get to 2,212 + interest,attorney fees and court fees. I understand I will be shoved with fees, but the actual amount of debt can't keep revolving on a closed account, can it?

You thought wrong, interest continues to accrue on any unpaid balance. Also attorney fees for collection effort can be added. All closing does is mean you can't use the account for purchases anymore.