need help answering summons

Your credit card debts fall under oral contracts. The statute of limitations in NV is 4 years in this case. SOL will stop only legal actions after the term's expiry. Unifund doesn't have a case against you at this point. Read some of the posts about them

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/forums/unifund-corp.html

Did Unifund validate your debt? You should have the complete info and confirm that they are collecting for the right one. Check your mail if you have received anything from them. If not, send a debt validation letter to make them aware that you are waiting for their response. Once you get their reply, you need to send a dispute letter mentioning the expiry of the SOL in your state. Make sure that you do all this communication through certified mail with return receipt requested. This will provide proof of how you took care of the matter by being aware about your rights.

deldeb1

Hi, welcome to the forums!

You should probably type up a letter asking for debt validation now. Even if your summons is for Tuesday, showing proof of your letter will give the judge an idea that you're trying to help the situation.

There are sample validation letters on this site.

Also, who is this account with? Unified? Is tihs a credit card company, or the collections company?

You need to be prepared for the worse, so bring all necessary paper work.

Regards
Mike

I forgot to say anything about the summons you received. Your county clerk must have the copy of this summon in their records. You can verify whether this one is genuine. If you realize the papers are legal, show your appearance at the court. You must not miss the court date at any cost otherwise the CA will try for a default judgment against you. Do everything that I told you in the above post and show it to the judge on the hearing date. Everything will be ok..

Thanks for all your help. Here are some answers to the questions you asked me. Unifund is the CA that bought the old debt from the credit card company. Unifund is the Plaintiff in the lawsuit. The summons was delivered to me by their atty. They have not validated the debt. This is the first thing I ever heard from them. The Summons!!The only ccard that I owe on is one from 2001, and no payment has been made on that account since September 2001. I even have a letter from the original creditor dated December 2001 telling me they are charging off the account, but I will still owe the money to them even though it is being charged off. The letter also states that they might sell the debt to someone in the future and I will liable to then pay that company. My summons reads that I need to file a formal written response within 20 days if I wish to defend the lawsuit, or a default judegement will be entered. There is no court appearance date. If I understand corectly I should go ahead and send a debt validation now, even though I have already received the summons. I need some help though regarding my formal written resonse to the court. I don't know if I should just tell the courts that I have not received a debt validation, and or any outstanding accounts I have , have exceeded the statute of limitations in our state. If this is re the account that I think it is, they are suing me for 5 times the original debt owed, atty fees, ct fees etc. Also, due to the fact that I can't afford an atty at this time, I need to answer this summons my self and any help with the correct wording would be greatly appreciated.As I stated earlier I live in Nevada .Thanks again for any help.

deldeb1, first off, don't panic. Look the brief (summons) over for a disclaimer in the form of, "This is an attempt to collect a debt.....". Look to see the complaint is signed by an active judge, a court date, time, location, etc. They are also supposed to be served by law enforcement, usually Sheriff or deputy, or someone unbiased to the action provided it meets the small claims criteria. If any of this stuff is amiss, which I think it is, go to your nearest law enforcement ageny with the document and have them direct you as to what to do next. It is illegal to use a legal brief as a collection action unless it goes through a court. Sounds to me like another method of intimidation, DO NOT TOLERATE IT!

You CANNOT be jailed for a bad debt. Period. Even them saying or implying that is ILLEGAL.

AND, that bogus form they wanted you to fill out came from them, NOT the court. Therefore, NO CONTEMPT charge can be filed. Another illegal collection tactic.

Go to FTC.gov and read/print the fdcpa, and then file an online complaint for each violation of your rights.

Obviously, they cannot get anything from you, but you still need to respond. Get an NACA attorney.

i agree with everybody on here.. def call ur county clerks office and see if a summons has been issued..when i got my summons it had a time ,date and place on it..a quick call will tell u if there really is one or not

Here is a link on how underhanded this company is, there is, I believe, a class action lawsuit against them. Here is the link, just read you will become more informed on this company. (http://www.collectionindustrylive.com/news_KimLawsuit.html)

The summons is real. It was filed with the courts and signed by the county clerk, with a district court seal. Also the paragraph noted as above " This is an attempt to collect a debt" is in the first part of the complaint. By reading the first page of the summons it seems that in the state of nevada you just have to answer the summons formally in writing according to the rules of the court and then send a copy of your answer to the attorney whom served you. Is there anyone out there who has answered a summons like this telling the courts that the debt they are trying to collect has met the statute of limitationss and therefore you can not be sued? Thanks again for any support

Quote:

deldeb1, that disclaimer indicates that the summons is a hoax. Do NOT respond to anything. Call the legal service that ashley pointed out and let them handle it but do NOT send them anything! Suing someone costs money and I doubt they are willing to spend it but they can create a legal brief pretty cheap. You are being bullied and hopefully you will call the legal services ASAP. Even a judge would know the SoL is out of date.

Thanks for trying to ease my mind about this whole issue re my summons, but I 'm pretty sure this summons is real. It has case #, deputy clerks stamps, district court seals etc. Maybe in my state they just have a different process for answering these things. Anyway, I've read over and over the last few days many complaints re unifund. A lot of them are exactly like mine in fact, except I know that I have met the statute of limitations re being sued to collect this debt. I have the original papers from the original creditor showing last payment made in 2001. Do you think or know if just having that information is enough to have this case dismissed from court? I am just going to answer the summons myself, I hope I do this correctly, ( proper format etc.,) I am going to let the courts know that I never received a debt validation, and the info re the sol as stated above. Do you have any other ideas of what I should also include in my answer?
Thx , you sound very knowledgeable and I am obviously new at this game.

Let's keep ourselves grounded.

Iowa is the only state where people can be normally be jailed for failing to pay an unsecured debt. (I did see it happen once in New Jersey but only in VERY unusual circumstances and . . . even though I represented the creditor I still can't believe the judge bought my bulls#$t.)

Second, even judgment debt can be settled. Let me give you an example. I recently had a PA client that owed attorney fees to another firm. They sued; he did not respond and they got a default judgment. Meanwhile, the poor guy's wife died and he lost the protections of PA's community property laws. The law firm got an order to seize the poor guy's cars and bank account - which together would have paid more than the $3000 judgment. I got them to accept $2000 instead.

This doesn't mean that I am God's gift to jurisprudence. But it does mean that settlements can be reached - even under the direst of circumstances.

deldeb1, you have FREE legal advice in your state by Clark County Legal Service, why would you not use it? It would take them 5 minutes to clear this matter up and it would be LEGAL with recorded documentation.
The law clearly states that it is illegal to use a summons/legal brief for the purposes of debt collection unless it is to be used to actually summon you to a courtroom. The disclaimer of, "This is an ATTEMPT to collect a debt and any information gathered will be used to.." blah blah blah tells me that they are trying to bypass the law with the disclaimer and at the same time get your personal information so they can harass or intimidate you further. You do not need to divulge any personal information to a collector and they have asked you to do just that by sending a copy to their attorney. A real summons contains a court date, time, and the presiding judges name and location (courtroom number). Just because a bunch of clowns sign a document does not make it binding.
I beg of you that you do NOT send them any money and you do NOT give any personal information in any form. Just contact the free legal service and let them handle it, make sure you give them the fake summons.
This case will not be seen by a judge, everyone knows the statute of limitations and they are just trying to bully money out of you. One thing that is not mentioned is that if you make a payment the statute of limitations resets at that payment date so they will do anything to get even a small token out of you to re-validate the debt. They have nothing to make a case against you. If you do nothing others will be intimidated in the same manner and paying debts that they shouldn't. So don't just contact the free legal service just for yourself, do it for everyone.

I recieved a summons for a credit card debt a couple weeks ago and I have been trying to negotiate with the laywers handeling this. I gave them a hardship letter and finally they said the only negotiation is 2 options. Pay the full amt as a payment plan or pay the full amt of 80% which I told them I couldnt and they said sorry and they would see me in court. My question is can they do that? and what happens when you go to court? Is it impossible to win the case and would I end up paying more as an end result? Can I just file bankruptcy?

Be sure to show up at the court date. It seems to me thats the place to present your hardship letter. Many states have "pauper laws" and clauses.

Nice site!