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Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 3:52 pm Subject: Navy Sailor Needs Serious Help!

I'm currently serving in the US Navy. A few months ago, I came to terms with my financial problems and decided to seek help. I sought help from a civilian organization that helps military members with financial problems, etc. One idea they gave me was consumer credit counseling. I signed up with a what I feel is a respectable company and began the plan. In March, I was given a summons stating that a lawsuit had been started, and I needed to submit an answer within 20 days. I faxed this to my ccc company, and they sent me an answer a few weeks later. It was either right at the 20 day mark, or a day or two before that I received the answer. I made the mistake of thinking that it was too late to submit the answer, and I told myself I would just wait for the court date, if any, and defend myself in front of the judge. I periodically checked the court clerks webpage and searched for my court date. Nothing ever came up. I assumed they were bluffing and were eventually going to accept the CCC offer. Boy was I wrong.

One day while looking up my driving record for new car insurance, I found in another section of the clerks page that I had already been sued, and the judgement was denied with an ex-parte order written after that. That was on the 9th. Today, I happened to look again, just to see if there were any other actions against me, I discovered that the judgement went through the second time. They get the full amount, interest, etc.

I'm not disputing the fact that I owe them money, but here's my question. Should I file an appeal? Try to explain to the judge that I'm working with a CCC agency? As far as I can tell, according to the Servicemens civil relief act, the plaintiff has to file an affidavit stating that i'm in the military, that they don't know, or that I'm not in the military before a judgment can be reached. If they answer yes, or they're not sure, the court has to appointment an attorney to defend me. The attorney is suppossed to contact me, etc. This didn't happen. If they said no, i'm pretty confident they should have known better. I know the original creditor who they say they are representing has my employer information, and I'm pretty confident this attorney has attempted to contact me at work.

Anyway, if I appeal, should I mention anything about this? I want to pay my debt, but there is no way possible I can make the payments that they are asking for. That's just the way it is. Should I appeal? If so, what type of info should I include? Or should I try to work out an arrangement with the plaintiffs first? I have no idea what to do.

I can't use the military as a reason why I didn't appear in court, it was just plain old ignorance on my part. Please, someone help me with this.

Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 5:03 pm Subject:

This one goes beyond my area of expertise. Hang tight, there'll be somebody along that can give you some real assistance in this. Remember that this is a holiday weekend, so lots of our members are out of pocket until tomorrow or Tuesday.

Hang in there, buddy. And thank you for your service to our country.

Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 5:06 pm Subject:

Thanks. It's embarrassing that as a representative of the armed forces, I allowed myself to get into this situation. I've had some bad luck, but I can't blame it all on that. My problem started when I made some bad choices on how to handle my problems. Instead of getting help early, I took out some payday loans, borrowed from family, cash advances, etc. I know I screwed up, owe the money, etc. I can't pay what I can't pay though. I'd like to pay everything that I owe, I just have to be able to afford the payments. I just don't know what to do.

Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 5:19 pm Subject:

Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 5:25 pm Subject:

Creditors are not required to accept debt management programs. Honestly I would try and work something out, maybe a settlement or somehting can be obtained.

Being in the military you should have access to free legal. I would go ask them.

Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 6:00 pm Subject:

Contact your legal office on base and have them assist you in resolving this.

Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 6:05 pm Subject:

Thanks for the advice guys. FYI, that's what I'm hoping for, to work something out. The only problem is, it would have to fit within my budget. I'd have to remove them from the plan, and hope the amount is about the same. What are the odds that they won't work something out? If they want it all at once, they're out of luck. They'd have to make me sell my house, whatever, to get the money. I'm not even sure that would work.
BTW, I'm a guy, i'll change the female avatar later.

Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 6:14 pm Subject:

Unc, I'm just about done with the payday loan mess. I paid off a few, and am working with the rest to pay them off. A few of the others I tried to negotiate a payment plan, but they would have nothing to do with it. I informed them of the laws concerning unlicensed payday loans with military members in Washington State (can't garnish, hell, if they're not licensed, they can't collect a dime), so not too worried about that.

We do have a JAG officer here, but I'm not too sure what he can do. I've always heard that they won't help active duty members in cases like this. Hopefully he can point me in the right direction though.
I really hope I can negotiate a plan with these guys. I hope they are reasonable. I really want to pay them and take care of this. I'm so disgusted with myself right now. I'm really thinking about appealing, but I believe it costs 200 bucks. That's absolutely outrageous btw. If I had money like that, I wouldn't be in this mess. Hahaha.
I'm not sure on what grounds I can appeal though. Will the judge take "ignorance" as an excuse? I'm thinking my only hope is the SCRA, which says that they have to ascertain if I'm in the military. If they can't, or they say I am, then the judge is suppossed to appoint me a lawyer, who is suppossed to contact me. If they say I'm not, then the default judgement can happen. But that's the catch, it wouldn't take them long to figure out if I'm in the military or not. My creditor would have the US Navy listed as my employer, they have my work number, etc. So how the hell can they say they don't know?
Again, I'm not sure if this is grounds for appeal, but it might be the only thing I have.
Does any know if it normally costs anything to just look at the case paperwork? Do I have to pay to see how they answered the military question? I think my plan is to call the lawyer on Tuesday and ask about a payment plan. If that don't work, then go to the courthouse and try to look at the docs. Once I figure out what those say, I'll talk to my JAG. From there, I should know if I can file an appeal or not. If none of the above work, and they want to garnish, place a lien, etc, I'll look into bankruptcy.

Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 7:11 pm Subject:

Seeing as it's Memorial Day weekend, and nothing much can be done with this until Tuesday anyway, you might want to chat with your JAG officer first. He can likely clue you as to costs involved for records, appeals, etc.

Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 7:26 pm Subject: Hope everything works out

To you our young ericvlascamp, hope everything turns out okay for you, and I am sure it will. My son was in military but has just recently gotten out. He will have to declare bankruptcy due to financial difficulties, but I think in the long run, it will help him. You sound like a "right on" dude and you are making every effort to pay your bills. Thanks for your service to the nation and keep the community posted on your progress. Don't worry, you'll be fine.

Posted: Sun May 25, 2008 8:01 pm Subject:

You definately are going to be fine and all isn't lost. A few suggestions for you: have you tried going to your base Family Service Center? They have counselors who could probably spell your options out as a servicemember--and in my and my husband's day, they also gave short-term loans at reasonable interest rates to help out.
If you are enlisted, have you gone to your Command Master Chief or Chief of the Boat if you are on subs? They could also steer you in the right direction.
JAG is a good way to go--as they can clue you into the laws for you and your state of residence.

Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 7:00 am Subject:

Good catch,I forgot about the Command Master Chiefs.They are usually a enlisted persons first line of contact.

Guest · Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 7:12 am Subject:

Thanks for all the advice. I guess the only thing I can do is keep fighting. I don't know how many times I've heard people say that everyone goes through stuff like this. I'm not sure that everyone does, but a lot more than what I would have ever believed. My problems started with an escrow overage, which I asked them to put back into the loan, they added it to the escrow, instead of making a payment. I assumed they would make a payment, so when I found out about 2 weeks later that the payment was due, I was kinda shocked. No worries though I though. I'll just use a credit card balance transfer check to make the payment. I had a zero balance (Chase, by the way) and I'll just pay it back later. I put the check in my bank, and paid the mortgage payment. A few days later, my debit card doesn't work. I called the bank, they told me Chase declined the check. I called Chase, they said I had never used the account, they thought it was fraud, etc. So now I'm down 1700 bucks to my bank. That's when the problems started. I took out a couple payday loans (on line btw) and boy was that stupid. About a month later, I was rear ended by an uninisured driver. My car was totalled, I didn't have gap insurance, hell, I've never even heard of it. My insurance paid for most of the loan, but left me with about 3500 bucks left. That's when things got really bad.
Like I said, I want to pay my debts, but at payments that fit my budget. I hope the lawyers will work out a plan with me!
Kscornell, I did talk to family service center. They talked to my mortgage company, finally got them to modify my loan. They also helped me work out a budget and recommended I look into ccc. I also talked to my chain of command, they were the first people I went to. You have no idea how hard that was!

Thanks again for all the help.

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