Friend getting sued, what to do?

In My Humble Opinion
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[QUOTE=Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]
I am not your lawyer.

I am not yet A lawyer.

You should talk to a lawyer.

Filing motions and such for the express purpose of forcing a settlement or making the adverse party’s life difficult is frowned upon by the court, and, by “frowned upon,” I mean “likely to result in sanctions.”

Of course, I say this at the same time I say that I am not your lawyer and I am not A lawyer, so you should probably **talk to a lawyer **rather than a bunch of yahoos on a message board. :wink:
[/QUOTE]

This is correct. I am a paralegal for a bankruptcy firm (both as attorneys for filers and for the government appointed “Trustee”) and judges have zero tolerance for BS like this.

The firms do file many cases at the same time, and they are forms (I just did a few myself this morning). Costs to the credit card company is tiny on a case by case basis.

As someone from “the other side”, if the company won’t make a settlement (unlikely, so I assume his deal wasn’t very realistic) and a Complaint is filed against your friend, he can then contact the company and do an agreed judgment, which will set the judgment amount in stone, and allow for payments, although interest will probably make his payment amount high.

He really, really needs to pay his bills. There are some sad stories out there, but most are not, and there are protections in the law for credit firms that are being stolen from.

22

None of the following is legal advice. I am not your lawyer, you are not my client. For legal advice, consult an attorney in your jurisdiction.

First, read these articles:
“Zombie Debt” is Hard to Kill

Sleazy New Debt-Collector Tactics

[QUOTE=Caffeine.addict]
I knew someone who does that kind of work and I had another matter in the court where those are usually heard and I was amazed at how those attorneys do them. They schedule at least fifteen of them to be heard that day. 9 times out of 10, the defendant doesn’t show and they get a default judgment. The pleadings are forms for the most part with some things filled in by a paralegal.
[/QUOTE]
In my experience, that’s exactly right, except that I’d put the number of default judgments much higher. They don’t want to prove these cases, they want default judgments. Oodles and oodles of default judgments, all of them on the full amount of the alleged debts plus attorney’s fees and years of interest, and then use the default judgments to get liens on people’s homes. Much of the time, it’s zombie debt, purchased by the company from the original creditor for 1 or 2 cents on the dollar. It may be limitations barred, unenforceable, unproveable, discharged, fraudulent, for three times the amount actually owed, whatever, but if they get a default judgment on you it probably doesn’t matter.

Zombie debt purchasers buy debts in bulk by the thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands. Some of these are worthless, unless the alleged debtor defaults. If you request that they provide documentation of their purchase of the debt or its validity they ought to be able and willing to provide documentation and send you specifics of the debt, but quite often they won’t. They’re not interested and probably don’t have it, and what they send as “verification” may be very different from what you and I would consder that term to mean. They’re mainly interested in one thing: you paying them some money. Your ancient debt is likely one of thousands that they purchased in bulk for 2-10 cents on the dollar, and they don’t want to waste a lot of time proving any one of them. If your debt is unenforceable or limitations barred, they usually aren’t going to apologize and quit bugging you. They’d rather you take some kind of action to reawaken the debt.

If you’re being called about an old debt from someone claiming to have bought it, contact an attorney expecienced in consumer debt, particularly if they are harassing you. If you get served with a lawsuit on such a debt, see such a lawyer immediately if not sooner. If you are sued and do nothing, or answer the lawsuit youself and do so improperly (which is extremely easy to do), you’ll end up with a default or summary judgment against yourself admitting the full amount they’re asking for, even if the debt was limitations barred and fraudently made in your name by a thief.

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[QUOTE=pravnik]
…and then use the default judgments to get liens on people’s homes. …
[/QUOTE]

In Texas aren’t you allowed a house and car, in addition to your income, which are free from garnishment? Or is/was that Florida?

I remember one time I had a judgment against a Houston Oiler - let’s say he was known by the color of his shoes. Only after getting the judgment did I learn that Texas don’t allow no wage garnishment. Every Monday I could count on my client calling me up and bitching, “I saw that deadbeat on TV yesterday. What are you doing to get me my money?” (To the individual’s credit, he agreed to payment.)

Until you do collections, you do not realize the extent people go to to render themselves judgment proof. On the other side of the coin, you learn how eager various institutions are to extend credit to folks who have no business borrowing.

Not a fun business, but done right, there’s good money to be made.

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[QUOTE=Dinsdale]
In Texas aren’t you allowed a house and car, in addition to your income, which are free from garnishment? Or is/was that Florida?
[/QUOTE]
The judgment lien doesn’t technically attach to the debtor’s personal residence due to the homestead exception, but often it might as well. A judgment lien creates a cloud on the title of the homestead that the debtor has to get released if he’s going to ever sell the home, and if the lienholder won’t release the lien as to the home, you’ll have to sue them. Rather than hiring a lawyer and waiting for the nine months to a year that will take, it’s once again probably cheaper, easier, and much, much faster to pay the lien or some portion of it in settlement, especially if you’re in a hurry to sell. That’s just the homestead, of course, the lien will attach to any other real estate and must be satisfied by any inheritance the debtor comes into, so if mom and pop die and leave you the family farm, the executor will have to sell it and pay them if you don’t.

25

Thanks for the replies. I gave him the websites for the attorneys.

I have a few more questions…how much can an attorney really do for someone in this case? I mean it seems pretty cut and dried that there is no way of denying he incurred the debt.

Could he file a answer (either a general denial, or line by line “does not have enough information to answer”), to prevent a default judgment and bring the creditor to the negotiating table? I know he is willing to pay part of it, however hes not going to enter into a agreement he can’t afford. The offer he did make that was rejected WAS a very low offer.

26

oh I forgot …does a judgement lien on a property even come into play if he goes to sell it but has less than the state exemption in equity?

and also, I know the judgment period is 10 years but I am getting conflicting info on whether or not that can be renewed in NC?

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[QUOTE=Gatorade Brain]
oh I forgot …does a judgement lien on a property even come into play if he goes to sell it but has less than the state exemption in equity?

and also, I know the judgment period is 10 years but I am getting conflicting info on whether or not that can be renewed in NC?
[/QUOTE]

These are very specific questions, whose answers will vary a lot among jurisdictions.

There are several websites where you can ask these questions of local lawyers, who are familiar with the relevant laws. I’m going to close this thread and I’ll email you some websites.

**Gfactor **
General Questions Moderator