Recently I was asked by a friend to accompany her to a court hearing involving a credit card debt. As a side note, that is what tends to happen when you’re a credit counselor. Anyway, the debt amount was 1800.00 dollars, not a very large amount by some standards, but when you do not have it, perhaps a fortune. Anyway, prior to being served she had followed my advice and requested a debt validation. This act, stopped the phone calls, and after about 60 days, my friend received a pile of papers supposedly validating the debt, and about 8 months later a subpoena. So now you should be asking, what happens since the validation was not responded to in the 30 day period as required by the FDCPA? Secondly, what was in the pile of papers?
The papers produced were copies of the credit card paperwork with my friends signature showing each individual charge. The only way to dispute this would be to say that the signatures were not hers. She was not about to perpetrate a fraud. Secondly, the mediator went right past the fact that the requested validation was not produced in 30 days, and looked at my friend and asked her if she was denying that any part of the debt was hers. Again, she had to answer no. As an important point of note, while this was a hearing in the mediators office, one thing to understand is you take your que in this situation by what you see happening. Neither the mediator or the opposing counsel were out for blood, but simply wanted to resolve the matter fairly.
To make a long story short, the debt was settled that day for 40% of what was owed, with no legal fees or interest added on. Furthermore, my friend was given a 60 day grace period to start her very low monthly payments.
Everyone won that day.
So, what is the point of all this.
Here
are some interesting statistics on Pro Se litigation:
According
to the National Center For State Courts, depending on the state, between 48 and
85% of all civil litigations are done on a pro se basis in small claims court,
and credit card cases are always small claims actions.
The above real life example of how an actual case was resolved should help drive home the point that even if you know nothing about the law, know one thing, that is, if you do not respond to the subpoena you lose by default. My friend had me to guide her through the process, a credit counselor familiar with the system, but not Perry Mason, and had a very favorable outcome.
Allow me to provide some words of advice.
If
served a notice from a creditor advising you that you have 30 days to respond
to the validity of the debt, by all means do so. You can visit the americandebtenders creditor lawsuit resource page to get a sample letter, very simple.
This
will at least, put the ball in play and slow things down.
Next, monitor your phone calls. The creditor is not permitted to contact you or put more negatives on your credit report when the validation is under way. This is a big point, and may allow you to counter sue.
Next, if you are subpoenaed, and sometimes the validation request makes the whole thing just go away, make sure you respond to it.
These simple rules will go a very long way to keeping judgments and wage garnishments from ever happening to you.
Thanks for reading. If you need advice, or what I believe to be the best debt settlement program in the country, please do not hesitate to call me or email me.
Yours Truly
Steven Ciantro
Consumer Advocate
American Debt Enders
Certified Credit Counselor
TalkShoe Radio Host
Member National Association of Certified Credit Counselors
Debt Expert for Gail Kasper's Top 1% Club
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Kasper's Top 1% Club
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