Suttell and Associates: How to deal with them?

I am also being sued by them. I was served papers from a debt back in 2002. It was bought by another creditor and sold to Suttle & Associates in 2007. My last payment was in 2004. I had not heard anything from either creditor in 5 years. I tried to make payment arrangements with them and they said they would only accept $200 a month and I told them that I could not afford that but would pay $100. The next day I received some papers in the mail saying that I needed to give them my bank account information and that I had agreed to $200 a month.

I responded to them in a letter telling them that I did not agree to this amount and offered to settle for $1,000. They sent me a letter back with a counter offer for $1,900. (the debt is for $2,400)

I sent them another letter telling them that I was willing to settle for half the debt and would pay it in cash by the end of the month and asked them to validate my debt.

About 3 weeks went by and I got a letter from them with my debt validation and a letter that said that I must pay the $1,900 or $200 a month or they would pursue to sue me.

About a month ago I got another letter that was a judgment against me for a default judgment for not responding to them within the 20 days. I was totally floored because I had 3 different letters to them within the 20 days trying to pay them or settle the debt.

Reading further on the summons they had first sent it said to file my response and give a copy to the person sueing me. Any regular Joe Blow would not know that meant file with the court house. So yes, I am in default. I know that I owe the money and I am trying to pay them. Now it sais that I will have to pay the court costs of $840 on top of the $2,400 I owe. That is how they make all of there money sueing people and also making them pay court costs. I tried to pay them and now I am being punished and will probably get my wages garnished. I just had a baby and told them when I was served in January that I only had $1,000 that I had saved up for my baby but I was willing to give it all to them and they said no. Now with a new baby and an 11 year old at home i am totally strapped as it is. I work full time and also get state assistance for medical and WIC for my son.

Does anyone have any advice that I can take with me to court to tell the judge so that I can show after disposable income with my rent, groceries, utilities that I have hardly anything left?

Thank you,
Clamarsh

Did they ever serve you a summons? If not, my research indicates they have violated your Due process. The summons would have given you 20 days to respond to them in writing. My summons did NOT specifically state I had to file my response in court. As you can see from my pevious post, the Judge not only allowed my rebuttal to their "Motion For Default", but he also rejected their motion. If they did not serve you with a summons, you can motion to "vacate" the order of default.

Again, I am not an attorney, just someone who recently spent 30 hours researching WA law and prevailed as a result. All the information you need is on-line. It's just a matter of finding it, preparing your defense, and following through by filing with the Clerk's office.

Good luck.

We are working with a debt settlement company and just received notice to appear in court to declare our assets. Isn't this something that our debt settlement company should be able to handle?

What type of debt is it? Have you checked the SOL of your state?

This "Law office" is extreemly unprofessional!. They file garnishment for something they know nothing about. They are charging me fanominal fees because I have an on going dispute with a company called Stores On Line. There is a Class Action Law suit against them for a variety of issues. I am one of the plaintiffs. But instead of waiting until this action is settled they are charging me double what thoe orginal bill was. They are nothing more than legalized thieves. They are rude on the phone and place you on hole numerous times or tell you to 'Leave a number ". The profession I am in is not condusive to staying on terminal hold or having some one call back. Most businesses do not allow empolyees to have personal phone calls and employees can be fired. This collection agency makes it very clear they don't care about you or the situation by their tone of voice and snippy-ness. They just want to get their bonus checks for settlng an acct. They offer no explaination other than "pay up or we'll take it out of your income". They are no better than hungry vultuers searching for their nest pray.

First they serve you with a summons and its on official looking local court documents-but are fake.
Check with your local court.
They served me for a debt supposedly owed to a bank in Oregon-I live in North Western Washington.
Same crap-after demads to validate they produced a statement claiming I owed $600+ from many years ago and show the compounded fees , penalties,interest jacking the debt up 200%-but no record of any contract,no documents proving the debt was valid or with my signatures on any purchase!
I filed complaints with the US Attorney General in Washington DC for mail fraud and falsifying a court document-as well as my state attorney general,and US postal service for mail fraud.In fact I filed criminal complaints in every state they sent documents from against them.
I warned them if they pursued any action I would sue them for fraud and demand criminal charges for fraud against both collectors who claim to be attorneys at law.
My advice is to file suit as soon as you get a summons for conspiracy to commit fraud in your local court-and demand a hearing and validation.
In my case I pointed out that if I owed anything to the creditor it may have been prior to the statute of limitations limit and therefor was null and void as the 5 year period has already passed.To attempt to collect on it in Washington is fraud.A felony.
File complaints with your state bar association against their record and with your local state deptartment of licensing.
By law they must have a business license in the county they serve you with any document-like a summons.And if they have not actually filed the summons with your court-its fraud.
Since I filed complaints in 5 states against them and the US Attorneys office-they backed down.
Contact your state attorney general and local news media.

This is great information for me as I received a letter with a court date yesterday in the mail.

I too have a summons from S&A how did you answer their summons?

Hello, I was the topic starter.
I responded to their Summons, unfortunately after 20 days, with a settlement letter, but they didn't respond instead sending aNotice for hearing to me.
I just received a Notice for hearing from Suttel and Associate With two date on it, what does that mean?
One is 2/5/2010 with the word Without Oral Argument checked, while the other is Trial Date 7/11/2011
Does that mean I have to be at the court house on 2/5/2010 or 7/11/2011
Can I submit a written response, since I am going out of theo country on the 1/31/2010
And their proof of me oweing the debt is an billing statement with my name but the wrong PO BOX on it, and an customer agreement, with nothing with my signature on it.
What are my options?
The case is in the superior court of the state of washington King country and case Number is 10-2-03407-2

I was contacted by them a couple of years ago and finally got a letter in the mail last June, I requested validation sending the letter to them certified, return receipt. Recieved my reciept and have heard nothing from them. I am assuming they can't validate the claim!

My husband and I are in desparate need of an attorney who has success dealing with SUTTEL and their unbelievable cr*p. We are exhausted and need to turn this situation over to someone that can put it to rest. If we can't put it to rest, not only are we going to need bancruptcy help, but divorce lawyers too!

I got a letter from a class action suit that was settled by a Tacoma firm stating that they were looking for persons who had dealings with Suttell for a new class-action suit. I lost the phone number. Does anyone know who is going after them for class-action? Also, since we have been garnished in the past, we would like to find someone ASAP so we can avoid a new garnishment. We are on a payment plan now, but even with the payment plan we can't pay our current bills. We don't need anymore bad debt - but this judgement is hindering our ability to have a healthy life.

Please respond

Who knows of any attorneys willing to go after these guys, or ANY attorneys who have been successful suing them?

You can check at the link below:
http://www.fairdebtforconsumers.com/

Ok, so I just got a letter from Suttell & Hammer P.S. (formally known as suttell & associates according to the letter). I'm assuming the name change is because of all the lawsuits against the former.


So the letter I have is Dated Feb 16th. Today is Feb 20th, so it's already 4 days into it (even though it shouldn't take more than 1 or 2 days to get to Vancouver from Bellvue)

Right now it's a just a demand letter to pay a debt from Citibank. It says at the bottom that no lawyers have personally reviewed my file.

It says I have 30 days to dispute it.

So where do I start? With a validation letter? Return receipt right?

Or do I do something with the courts even though it isn't an official summons?

I also received one Dated the Feb 17th. I am in Southern Oregon.
Do they have to have a license in Oregon or in the County in Oregon?

They have an "F" rating with the BBB

They might only have to be registered in your state but no license is required:

Exemption for out-of-state collectors: Contact state authorities. Out-of-state agencies may be exempt if [1] collecting for out-of-state client; [2] the debt was incurred by an Oregonian outside the state; and [3] the state where the collection agency is headquartered has a registration program comparable to Oregon's law.

They are inactive in Oregon from what I have seen, and it has been since 1997. Here is the information from the Oregon corporations division:

http://egov.sos.state.or.us/br/pkg_w...srch_inq.login

Type in the business name and select the sound-alike words in any word order. I would contact the corporations division and then find out who you need to contact, such as the attorney general, to see if they need to register and what you should do if they are not and are contacting you.

If it has only been since the 17th since they first contacted you, you should see in this letter you have 30 days to dispute it, DISPUTE IT!!! You can find a debt validation on here in the do it yourself section or by searching online for "sample debt validation letter"

DO NOT put a cease and desist in the DV letter. It is a big mistake that many people make. If it has it in a sample letter, take it out. Make sure you format the letter to your needs and send it certified mail return receipt requested.