A law firm put a judgement against me fo a credit card debt. i made arrangements to pay monthly between the attorney and I. They didn' make me go to court because of the arrangement. I got sick and stopped payments to them. I found out later that the sol was up. Now, I received a letter fro the attorney that if I do not fill out the fact information sheet(income, property,etc) they will file a Motion to Compel and/or Motion for sanctions. to the court.They said I could be jailed if I don not fill out this info sheet, stay in jail until I do. an They really have the court put me in jail? They are saying that the original judgement had this fact information sheet with it, but I never saw it. They are saying that it was court orderd for me to fill it out and return to them. What should I do? I am freaking out.

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What is the name of the firm and what state are you in? Laws vary from state to state. And some collectors have been known to lie.

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I live in Florida. The law firm is Hayt,Hayt and Landau in Miami

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When did the SOL expire?
When was the case filed?
When did you make payments?

If the collectors are requesting info, I do not believe you can be jailed for not providing it. If a judge orders you to provide info and you fail to do so, I believe you can be held in contempt of court.

Go down to the courthouse. You should be able to obtain copies of all the documents in your case, and see whether or not the fact sheet was included.

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Are you sure that they have a judgement against you? Did they tell you all this in writing? Some of these collector attorneys in the past have been known to send consumers "pre-trial interrogatories" etc, asking for information such as you mentioned, because they don't know anything about you. Of course, all this is illegal if no complaint has been filed and no judgement is against you.

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i bought a car and had to return it due to conjestive heart failure and not able to make the payments they sold the car left a balance owed onit of340dollars .a law firm got a judgement against me.I offered to pay $25.00 amo they said that woukd not cover the intrest. what can i do

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need advice on a judgement, returned car, bal owed after sal is$3'400.00 they got judgement please advise me on this matter

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need advice on a judgement, returned car, bal owed after sal is$3'400.00 they got judgement please advise me on this matter

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Hi jmc--

the first thing I would do is check with your local court clerk's office to make sure that they even filed a case in court against you. It is fairly common practice for collectors to use this tactic to scare people into paying immediately, before they have a chance to learn their rights. It is illegal to do so, but it still happens.

You said that the debt was past the SOL--but it isnt, because no matter how old it is, in most states if you make a payment on it, the clock restarts. So it is no longer outside the SOL unless the last payment you made was long enough back.

Also, they cannot put you in jail for most things regarding debts, but you can be found in contempt of court for some things if a case is ongoing in court. Again, check with the court clerk's office there--they cannot provide legal advice but they can often help you sort out what should be done as far as the proper procedures and so on. i would check with the court that the debt collector claims to have filed suit against you in before making any moves with the collector, just to be safe. I would most definitely not provide them with one shred of information until you can verify everything they are telling you as true.

One more thing--what do you mean when you say they "put a judgment against you"? Did you get served a summons and all that? Or did they just tell you that they put a judgment against you? If they did not actually sue you, then they cannot have a judgment against you. Some more info there can maybe help us to get you better information to help you out. Please get back to us.

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I live in S. Dakota. I just received a judgement on a credit card that my ex-husband and I had together. The amt is $3651.00. It states that I have 30 days to dispute the validity of the debt, etc. I know the debt is valid, but would like to set up payment arrangements. Would I set up payments with the law office or the actual credit card company? Also, is there a way to get them to lower the amt? as some of the amt is interest accrued. Thanks

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I live in S. Dakota. I just received a judgement on a credit card that my ex-husband and I had together. The amt is $3651.00. It states that I have 30 days to dispute the validity of the debt, etc. I know the debt is valid, but would like to set up payment arrangements. Would I set up payments with the law office or the actual credit card company? Also, is there a way to get them to lower the amt? as some of the amt is interest accrued. Thanks

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You can negotiate with them for a settlement, click on "Do It Yourself" above for the steps. Keep in mind that the best settlements will be in 1 lump sum payment, they are unlikely to accept more than 3 payments on a settlement offer. Also remember - if you come to an arrangement that is good for you, make sure the collector puts it in WRITING before you pay them one red cent.

You can ask the original creditor but they likely won't recall it unless there are flagrant FDCPA violations, so you would set up any arrangements with the Law Firm.

Oh, by the way, a judgment is something issued by a judge in civil court. It sounds like you received a standard dunning letter.

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Hang on, LLD--did I catch that right? You said they got a judgment against you, but then they said you have 30 days to dispute the debt? Something doesnt sound right at all there--once they get a judgment, they dont care if you dispute it or not. In fact, I have never seen a debt collector get a judgment and then tell you that you can dispute it. Since it is not their first contact with you--at least, if they really got a judgment it wouldnt be, they certainly dont need to tell you that at this point. did you ever get notice of the court case before now? If not, the very first thing to do is to check with your county court clerk's office to verify that there actually is a judgment against you. If you were never notified with a summons, you should immediately file an order to show cause with the court clerk--due to improper service.

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it's possible in that last case that the judgement was assigned to a new attorney. in that case the fdcpa validation period would start again with initial contact from that new firm.

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let's say that did happen.they wouldn't give them the right to dispute.it does sound like either improper service,or a collector trying to pass it off as a judgement.i would follow skydiver's advice,and check with your court clerk to confirm if a judgement was indeed rendered.

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I believe i'm going to be sued for a credit card debt - the final phone call we have had was from the collection agency and i taped it in which he was very threatening and hung up on me without giving me the payment options - what should be my course of action?

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