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yaka11

Hi!
GREAT SITE! THANKS!
We have been taken to court for a payday loan in a county that is NOT our county, nor is it the county where the payday loan store location we took out the loan is located. The contract states only the location we used in our own county, it does not list a corp address, other addresses, nothing.
We DO have a cross complaint for SEVERAL violations of the FDCPA, luckily in WI ALL businesses collecting a debt have to follow the FDCPA, regardless if they are a collection agency or company collecting their own debt...and various other little issues they did, including taking our rollover money, then depositing the check 11 days early like we never paid the rollover, and then it went NSF in our account, and they had us come back and get our 140.00 we paid in cash...it was all fishy...
Anyway, I found our state statutes (Wis. Statutes 420-427) which clearly state that it has to be in the county where I live, where we did the loan (same as mine)...however, its not, so on our first court date last month, the judge asked if we debated it, we said us, the other party did not want to mediate, and we had a pretrail conference today where I stated this was improper venue and that by the WISC. Consumer Act and gave a specific case example from our states supreme court where it would be improper venue/no jurisdiction...the commissioner said that the judge will probably not dismmiss it because their 'main branch' is in the county where they filed.....but I will just get taken to our county's courthouse anyway, then she asked if we had a crossclaim, I said 'yes' however we will not file it in an improper venue, we will wait for a crossclaim when/if its properly filed in our own county...we can not keep driving 45 minutes to this other county...

So, help guys, anyone know how to fight the 'main office' lingo? Our contract specifically states the only address is the one in our own county ...so what do I do now, continue the improper venue hoping to get it dismissed to our own county where we have the money to drive to fight this properly and stand up for our rights? The commissioner asked if we would offer to settle, we did, at an original amount prior to thier dishonesty and things, and they declined...the commissioner said that she was shocked that they didnt want to offer anything to finish this today...not one penny under the total...and its silly, the person representing them is the woman (not even the office manager) who wrote our loan and made the mistakes..so she isnt even in management, just a person who 'runs' paperwork to and file the court..make the nasty terrible illegal calls, 6-7 calls per day, to me and to other family members, after speaking to me...etc...anyway after my 14 years in the collection business myself, she was like a deer in headlights when we even first showed up last month to court..usually she files, no one shows and they get a default....

HELP! THANKS!
Angie
Wisconsin