Not notified of court proceedings

Make sure they have a correct address for you.

Some states do require a notice of default, some don't. If your state does not require advanced warning, they can go to court whenever they want.

However, some courts have held that a summons and complaint can be considered an "initial communication" per the fdcpa. As such, if you were to dispute the debt, they should validate it before they continue their case.

Yes, a court order has to be sent to the defendant before anything legal is done by the plaintiff. You should get the summon from the court 20 days before the court hearing. Some state laws vary from each other but the summon is always sent, in order to notify the person of the legal actions against him. Make sure that you have checked the laws in your state

I think FYI makes a very valid point in her post above - make sure the creditor or CA has your correct address. Due to the delay caused by forwarding orders at the post office, I have seen mail take up to 6 weeks to reach my new address. In the case of a notice of court proceedings, you may have precious little time to respond - and you can't afford 6 weeks lost due to an incorrect address.

While I realize you may not be aware that this debt exists, I would say this is also a good argument for checking your credit report annually, which can be done at www.firstgov.gov under the "consumers" section of that site.

Someone help me out on this but wasn't there a thread awhile back about CA that state they send collections out but send it to the wrong address, can you check with the courts to see what address they sent their collection notice to.. I thought I read in one of the threads that this is a way debt junk buyers scam people..

Okay, perhaps they did send the summons to the wrong address. However, they had no problem finding my husband's job headquarters to issue a garnishment. We live in Indiana, my husband's work headquarters is in Flordia. We live in the same state as the collector, court and have lived here all our lives. We pay taxes, get our yearly license plates. My husband has had the same job for over 10 years and they could not get our address. I am not convince that something is wrong with this picture. I am dealing with a collector who brought our account from another collector. (not the orginial seller, who was legit) Last week when my husband got his check with money taken did we have any knowledge. It was not on our credit report. We recently to be exact 9 month ago and 2 days ago ran a credit report, these guys were no where on the report. Yes, I have no choice but to hire a lawyer, the garnishment is burying us already.

I'm sorry to hear about this..However, payroll MUST provide your husband with a copy of the writ.

When I posted above, I thought you were asking if they needed to send a notice out that they intended to sue you...

When it comes to an actual lawsuit, a summons must be issued by the court. The summons does two things: 1) it tells the public that there is a matter coming before the court; 2) it also tells the defendant (you) that someone has filed a complaint against you and that you need to come defend yourself.

All states have different laws regarding how a summons must be served. But I think all states will require the plaintiff to show proof that they actually served you with the summons (ie they can't simply mail it to you).

You should be able to go to the court where the case was filed, and ask to the case files. In there should be the summons. You would be able to see where it was sent, and who signed for it.

You will be better off getting an attorney involved, since it is probably very complicated to reverse a judgment once it has been issued.

thank you for the info cruncher. one of my credit card companies mailed me a summons to my former residence. i never received proper notice of their course of action until it was too late. i am going to the court next week, as i am in the same city for the holidays. do you happen to know where i can find a low-cost attorney to assist me with the reversal process?

Low cost attorney? My experience has shown there is no such thing. Even the low cost ones are expensive when you have nothing.

While our Guest makes an amusing and often true point, I think moxie is looking for help with an attorney.

Moxie - I would recommend contacting your local legal aid office - look in the community services area of your phone book (usually in the front) and look under "legal aid". If you qualify, you should be able to find help with that office.