Ask me about dealing with/suing/being sued by debt collectors!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Ask me about dealing with/suing/being sued by debt collectors!

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

He needs to answer all the questions truthfully. A request for admissions is a part of the process called 'discovery', where both sides give each other information in order to clarify what the lawsuit is about and work to a settlement. If he lies, then the court can sanction him, which is very bad.

Edit: He should probably get some legal aid at this point. Dealing with formal discovery is a difficult process if you don't know the rules, and if you gently caress up, the consequences can be very bad.

Konstantin fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Feb 28, 2011

# ¿ Feb 28, 2011 23:09

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 15:55

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

They can't garnish your wages without a court order. Check your credit report and dispute anything regarding this debt that shows up on there. Do not call them, instead, send a copy of your settlement agreement with a statement saying that the debt was settled in full, and send it certified mail with a return receipt. Dealing with debt collectors over the phone is always a bad idea, it's much better to get everything in writing.

# ¿ May 3, 2011 10:10

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

That, and if you cut off any other means of communication they will have to deal with you in writing eventually. Granted, 'eventually' may be when they file suit against you, but if that is what it takes to get them to negotiate seriously, so be it. Paying a debt collector over the phone is taking a huge risk for no reason, you need that written assurance that the debt is settled in full. Look up a few posts for a guy who is getting a second collection on a settled debt, if he didn't have written proof of settlement he would have been screwed.

# ¿ May 5, 2011 07:27

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

tworavens posted:

So now for the question I was going to ask. Anyone here have dealings with Suttell And Hammer in Washington State? Just got served by them last week, and I sent my answer this week which basically has been that I deny everything and demand they produce proof in the form of contracts and receipts for the purchases I made. I've heard some people say they pay someone to basically write an affidavit that they have personal knowledge of all my debt and that it is valid when its not.

Anyway I can force them to produce all the contracts used?

Absolutely. When you get sued, you go through a process called 'discovery'. The short version is that you can request any document that the other party has, and they have to produce it if it has any relevance to the case. This is the major reason why lawsuits are so expensive, in some large cases there can easily be millions of pages of documents to review.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2011 10:50

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Woodsy Owl posted:

That's lovely, so I have to watch the Public Notices section of all the newspapers in Utah and Montana?

Thank you very much for responding.

Normally some lawyers who need clients will read the public notices section and try to contact people served this way, hoping to generate business. I wouldn't count on it though, and there is to guarantee that a lawyer will be able to find you even if he bothers looking.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2011 10:54

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

In general, if you have actual knowledge of the debt you have the obligation to pay it. They don't have to send you billing statements, and them not doing so doesn't relieve you of the obligation to pay.

# ¿ Nov 15, 2011 16:31

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Yeah, if they are straight up sending you fraudulent documents that appear to be from a court of law, that could easily lead to police involvement and jail time for them.

# ¿ Nov 23, 2011 20:58

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

YeahDavidLeeRoth posted:

I'm obviously going to send them a certified letter disputing it, but curious if anyone had any other tips. Any thoughts on what will happen seeing as I already mailed out a payment to the hospital?

It depends. If the hospital accepts the payment, that's an acknowledgement that they still own the debt, and the collection agency is acting fraudulently. If they refuse the payment, referring you to the CA, you'll have to deal with them, and they can tack on whatever fees they want.

# ¿ Mar 13, 2012 15:31

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

They have the right to refuse to sell you their product, but you should be able to get a refund for what you paid. If they refuse to give you a refund, you have several options. If you paid by credit card you can file a chargeback to get your money back. If you paid by check you should contact your bank and get a stop payment on the check. If the check has already gone through or you paid in cash, it will be more difficult, I'd suggest contacting your state attorney general.

# ¿ Apr 5, 2012 04:48

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

One thing I'm wondering, what is the legal difference between the terms "verification" and "validation"? I've seen them used interchangeably here, are they legal synonyms or is one of them different from the other? Even the text of the FDCPA uses both, and I figure they wouldn't use two different terms for the same thing.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2012 01:00

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Or, if you don't want to make stuff up, get a car insurance quote from GEICO. They use credit score as a factor, so if you're credit is bad, you get quoted a higher premium, and that's an adverse action.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2012 10:58

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Reason posted:

Someone in the legal thread recommended I cross-post this here. I kind of thought it counted as legal advice, but maybe you guys can be of more help.

This is regarding debt collection in Washington state.

Today my employer was called and they threatened to my boss that they were going to garnish my wages for like $500 for some Verizon bill from a million years ago. My question is as follows: Before garnishing my wages don't they have to sue me first to prove that I do in fact owe them said amount? If they did sue me don't they have to serve me with papers summons/complaint and then assuming they did that wouldn't they have a judgement/order from the court that would also have to be served on me?

Edit - I'm a process server so this is sort of what I've pieced together from serving papers on people so its probably all just made up.

Disclosing the existence of the debt to a third party is a FDCPA violation. While they might have sued you and gotten a default judgement without you knowing, I doubt it. If they did have a garnishment order they wouldn't bother with a phone call, they would serve the court order to your company's registered agent. You should not deal with them over the phone at all, except to demand that they stop calling you and deal with you only by mail. Also, pull your credit and dispute the debt. If it's more than six years old, they can't legally collect on it, but it sounds like they don't care about the law.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2012 06:51

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

If you do business with Citibank, just call them at the number that appears on your statement and ask them about it.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2017 23:49

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

How much is the debt? If it's more than a few grand it might be worth calling an attorney in the jurisdiction where you were sued. If it's less than that it will probably cost more to fight than to pay, and it is probably too late to negotiate a good settlement.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2018 21:17

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 15:55

Konstantin: Jun 20, 2005; And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

Keep in mind that paying won't get it "off the record." It simply changes it to a different category that may or may not improve your credit score. It may even keep it on your report for longer, as paying can reset the amount of time old debt can stay on the report.

# ¿ May 28, 2023 12:07

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Ask me about dealing with/suing/being sued by debt collectors!