I think something illegal has happened to me. Two days ago my husband and myself received a certified mail. My husband picked his up today from the post office. I asked the post lady to leave mine in the box because there was a place on the slip of paper for that. She didn't leave it in the box. My husband let me look at his letter. The letter was from Professional Credit Management out of Jonesboro, Arkansas. I called the number and spoke with a lady about the certified mail. She informed me that my husband and I had received the same letter. I asked her what the bill was for. She informed me that I had paid $30 on this bill on 10/15/2008. I asked her how much the original bill was. She stated that it was $117.43. To make a long story short, I have to pay $306.67. The company filed a claim against me in court but I wasn’t aware of this. I told her I had paid that bill off in full. She stated that I paid another bill off through their company in 2007. The original bill was $191.48. I paid $323.16 in all after court cost and some other fee. The bill was for me and not my husband. He feels as if the company is harassing him by sending the certified mail to him. Is this legal?

Thanks,

Is your husband in any way responsible for the debt? Was it a joint debt? I don't understand why you refused to sign for a certified letter.

You can always report to the agency in your State that handles these matters that your husband - if he had no responsibility - was contacted by the collection agency. I don't know that they will do much about it, though.

I think you need to worry more about the validity of the debt then the fact they contacted your husband. Its possible that, in your state debts incurred by one spouse are attributable to both.

You also ask in your subject about a judgement, but you mention nothing about a summons.

If you dispute the records of ths debt, then ask the agency for a full accounting and compare that to your records.

Hi BornAgain. A judgment can be filed against you without you knowing it if you were never notified of the debt or if you were never properly served a summons to appear in court for example. It seems clear that they did contact you even though it was through the mail. In some cases, it is the lawyer for the company that does this filing. It happened to me but I was able to have the judgment vacated since I proved I was not properly served and I was able to file a motion within the time limit. Since there are time limits to do this, do ask someone here if this is the case with you. I do not know which state you live in and how it may differ. I'm only familiar with NY. As far as the validity of the debt, yes, you must gather your receipts, canceled checks, records, etc. and compare. I used to do accounting and believe me, people can make mistakes. As far as them being able to send the letter to your husband, I believe that is allowed. If I stand corrected, an expert here will let me (and you) know. Best of luck to you.

No, they cannot contact a person's husband in an attempt to collect a debt if the husband is not on the debt in some fashion.

I would be more concerned about whether the OP has or has not been contacted - she has stated she is refusing to sign for certified mail for whatever reason. If the certified mail is the second half of service (possibly a nail and mail/sub service) she is simply putting herself in the position of not knowing what is going on in Court and having to appeal a Judgment.

And if she wins the appeal and has no proof they will simply serve her right then and there and get a new Judgment. Why go through all of this?

I had a judgment removed from my credit and more importantly, in my case, removed from the county clerk's office as well. The (opposing) lawyer contacted me and offered I pay a small monthly payment minus all and any interest, since I did not know about the debt and wasn't properly served, and in exchange, not have it on my credit and defintely not have a judgment against me. I received all of this in writing and which letter would go to the court and so on. I choose to wait on that. I still want to wait to make sure of a few things. Sometimes in general, they will be the ones to suggest settling it out of court anyway. Either way, everyone is different. I'd go ahead though and open that mail too for sure. Not good not knowing. Especially if you see it's a summons. My cousin had someone reach mail to her through her family. They forwarded it.
Yes, Best of Luck to you again BornAgain. And get those receipts, records, etc. as we've said and verify everything in the meantime. Take care and report back.

Getting a judgement vacated for improper service is often easy. Many times the plaintiff deliberately tried to avoid true service to get a default judgement.

But, if one does get the judgement vacated for improper service, then the defendant will generally be served properly before they leave the courthouse.

If you file a motion to vacate and the plaintiff offers a settlement, it may mean they don't have the documentation to win in court.

The above response sure makes perfect sense now as far as why they/lawyer would want to settle out of court. Thanks for the post/info.!