[71demongirl]

I received a summons from a law firm on behalf of HSBC credit card company. The summons was a complaint for monies due and I was served at the end of December. I had 21 days to respond to the summons, stating my planned defense to the law firm (had not yet been filed in court). I did so stating that there was no evidence provided that this credit debt and that I would have to speculate as to the debt they were speaking of.

I received a mailed copy of the complaint filed with the county clerks office about 7 days ago. This was not served to me, but as I said mailed. This is the same summons I had received earlier. It also says I have 21 days to respond there is no court date provided, I called the county clerks office to ask from what date I had to respond and they were no help. So now I don't know if I should be waiting for them to serve me these papers again or not?

Yesterday I received a call from a lawer at the law firm asking if there was any way I wanted to settle this before it went further. Iasked him what options he was willing to provide me, and he stated 3 options. All of these were not financial options for me. I told him that the amount they were asking for was more than double the amount originally due ( did I just incriminate myself?), I asked if he could provide me with a copy of the charges and fees that would come to this number he is stating is owed. He told me that I would have to ask for that information to be provided via discovery through the court. I did also say to him speaking frankly, I didn't believe that his company had the original documentation and they they had purchased this debt from the original company. This was all being recorded, and he said that what he could say on recorded conversaton is that no they do not purchase debt.

My questions are...
Should I file my response to the court not having actually been served yet?
Did I incriminate myself and hurt my defense by talking to the layer from the firm? Were they possibly calling me cause they don't want to take this to court cause I might have a good defense?
How do I proceed with asking that they provide the documantation that shows the original contract and charges that incurred, proving that it is my debt and that they actually have this evidence? I tried to look up the forms online and had no luck (maybe I was calling them the wrong thing).

[ScottGem]

You said you received a summons, If that was filed with the court then you have to respond. A court date will not be set until you do respond. If the lawyer has a recording of you mentioning that you knew the original amount, it might be used against you. And its not uncommon for a debt to more than double from interest and fees.

You respond to the summons with a letter of your intent to defend because you do not believe the debt is valid. You send a copy to the plaintiff.

If a hearing is scheduled you file a motion for discovery to get their documentation.

[Fr_Chuck]

My questions are...
Should I file my response to the court not having actually been served yet?
Did I incriminate myself and hurt my defense by talking to the layer from the firm? Were they possibly calling me cause they don't want to take this to court cause I might have a good defense?
How do I proceed with asking that they provide the documantation that shows the original contract and charges that incurred, proving that it is my debt and that they actually have this evidence? I tried to look up the forms online and had no luck (maybe I was calling them the wrong thing).

Scott gave good advice on how to answer the letter

In court, show proof where in writing, at the beginning of the billing from collections, you asked for verification of the debt, show in court it was never provided.

Deny owing the debt, make them prove it. * often they have no proof when and if they show up in court, they count on you not showing up, so they win by default

I doubt that the person you talked to was really an attorney, they use an attorney name in billing and contact but the people who call you are still bill collectors even at this point.