[hollyandromeo]

I had a small business and ordered goods from another business to work an event in September, 2003. After the event, the other business never contacted me again. They were supposed to pick up extra product from the event. I called them after the event to make sure that they did, and nobody at the company knew if they did or didn't. I also returned more product, which I originally didn't even order but they sent to me anyway, and they came to my place of business to pick it up.

Afterward, They never returned my calls. I put a stop payment on the original check that I sent them. Then I sent them a detailed letter and a money order, explaining the series of events. They never responded. They never sent me another invoice. I never received an updated bill. I never received a collections call or collections notice. I never received a summons to appear in court. I never received a complaint, a judgement or any other document from the company NOR a collection agency; I did not receive any legal documents or court notices.

I moved in January, 2005 and definitely put in a change of address form and my mail was forwarded to my new address.

Fast forward 3 1/2 years. In January 2007 I went to withdraw $40 from my ATM. It was declined. I then learned that someone had levied $4033.00 from my checking account. It was all the money I had in the world.

Upon investigation, there is a judgement against me in Los Angeles Civil Court for $4800.00. The original invoice was only for $3,200.00. I returned over half of the product and sent them a money order for about $980.00, which I believed to be the correct amount due.

The courthouses have not been very helpful or clear. According to my research, mailing documents to the address they have on file fullfills legal serving of notice requirements. I never received such mail. I knew nothing about this until January.

What do I do? The attorneys I've spoken with say it will be too expensive to hire them. Some say there's nothing I can do. I'm going to court in the morning to dispute this, but under what legal grounds? HELP!

[Fr_Chuck]

All you need to do is produce all of the documents, signed reciepts where they picked up, or shipping invoices where you shipped the goods back, money order reciepts and the such. If you keep all the original paperwork then you should have no trouble at all.