I received a notice from a collection agency around the 3rd week of Feb. 2007. It stated that they are attempting to collect a debt. They stated who it was for and the amount it was for. I did realize that I owed this. On March 2nd I sent them a check for $100 along with a letter saying that I would pay this amount each month until paid in full. The next week I receive my check back along with a letter from them saying "THANK YOU FOR YOUR PAYMENT. HOWEVER, LEGAL ACTION HAS ALREADY BEGUN'. Yesterday I received noticed frommy bank saying that this collection agency has garinsheed my account. How can they do this when I tried to pay them in good faith and they didn't accept it? :confused:

grandma_14

When a court action has been filed... any acceptance of an amount less than the amount indicated on the legal complaint causes the action to stop. If they had accepted your partial payment, they would have to intiate a new action to recover the balance if you didn't pay it.

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Originally Posted by Kstar4u

When a court action has been filed... any acceptance of an amount less than the amount indicated on the legal complaint causes the action to stop. If they had accepted your partial payment, they would have to intiate a new action to recover the balance if you didn't pay it.

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I do realize the whole court action thing. What I want to know is how can they do this when I received only the one notice from them, and within a few weeks they had already started legal action? Don't they give you time to try and work it out. Like I said, I received notice one day and 2 weeks later I sent them a payment.

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Originally Posted by grandma_14

What I want to know is how can they do this when I received only the one notice from them, and within a few weeks they had already started legal action?

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Hello grandma:

If your timeline is accurate, they didn't START legal action when you were notified, they were completing it. Believe me, grandma; our courts are NOT that efficient. And, since they knew where to write you, they knew where to serve you with a summons and complaint (court documents). Apparently, they didn't do that, and that's against the law.

You can find tons of research already done for you right here by Mr yet, our debt expert. You'll have to move the court to vacate the judgment. Of course, if you owe the debt, you'll lose in court and be back where you are now.

Ahha!! That's where the above is NOT true. Once you have put up some sort of defense that's going to cost THEM money, you are in a position to negotiate. ANYTIME you can negotiate, you can do better than the judgment amount. You can negotiate court costs and attorney's fees too.

AFTER they get a judgment, like they do now, they don't have to negotiate with you at all, and WON'T, as you're finding out.

Go git 'em, grandma.

excon

I think you need to go back and re read the notice you received in February. Its very possible that wasn't just a notice to collect, but a notice of suit. I suspect that you were given 30 days to file a Motion of Intent to Defend against the suit. Instead of doing that you sent them a check without getting some agreement with them.

If my guess is correct then by not filing a motion to defend, they were able to obtain a default judgement against you. Once they got that, they filed the garnishment.

So, if that notice you received in Feb was a notice of a suit and you did not respond properly, you may not have much of a case. It would mean you WERE served properly.

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

I think you need to go back and re read the notice you received in February. Its very possible that wasn't just a notice to collect, but a notice of suit. I suspect that you were given 30 days to file a Motion of Intent to Defend against the suit. Instead of doing that you sent them a check without getting some agreement with them.

If my guess is correct then by not filing a motion to defend, they were able to obtain a default judgement against you. Once they got that, they filed the garnishment.

So, if that notice you received in Feb was a notice of a suit and you did not respond properly, you may not have much of a case. It would mean you WERE served properly.

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I did go back and re-read the paper I got from the collection agency. It was just a notice to collect, not a notice of suit. Thank you for your reply. It was very very helpful. Everybodys reply was very helpful. Thank you again.