A lawyer contacted me in regards to credit card debts

Welcome to the forums... I personally do not know how to answer your question but I am sure someone will be along shortly who can!

Can you tell us the name of the law firm that contacted you? Sometimes people masquerade as lawyers to coerce you into paying.

From my experience, all these companies want is money. If all you can afford is $20/month, then thats all you can afford. You are making an earnest attempt to pay the debt, and you aren't avoiding it. So send them their $20/month..and keep track of it. You can't get blood from a stone.

Is this an attorney that is collecting as a collection company also? If this is an attorney that is in private practice and is working on a judgement, you need to talk to them. However, you need to find put when exactly the last payment was made and the SOL for your state. You can send a debt validation letter to him and get the details. I am dealing with a group of attorneys that are collecting for LVNV, but they also work in collections. Get a DV letter,registered,certified,return receipt, and go from there. Sometimes they say they are lawyers, and are not, sometimes they try to collect on old debts, so make sure of the deatils first,,Good Luck..KAren

No, it isn't an impossibility, if that's what the "lawyer" told you. He was trying to create a false sense of urgency. There are no timelines. What is the name? Most likely it is a firm of collection attorneys, who must obey the same law as CAs. They can't even sue you without first getting permission from the creditor.

Law student, I have a question.You said they cannot sure without the permission of the creditor. What if they are "lawyers" who are working with a CA that bought the debt, instead of just collecting for the creditor?..Karen

They would still need the permission of the creditor (the junk debt buyer in this case).

For a person to sue they must have legal standing.A person can sue another fairly easy.Since we are dealing with debts,the only way you can get sued is for the holder of the paper to sign off on it.Please be careful because I have heard of some lawfirms where they have bought their own paper.In that case,they have standing.

Bossy, yes it would depend on a few factors. Assuming the CA owns the debt, if it was an in-house lawyer, it would mean that they will sue. If it is a collection "attorney", such as Weltman and Reis, etc who are collecting for, say, Sears (or some debt purchaser), the owner of the debt would first have to sign off on it.

One of the main reasons debt buyer CAs turn debts over to collector law firms is the fear factor. If someone gets a dunning letter from a law firm, the person feels "the stakes have been raised". It doesn't mean you're going to be sued, not right away anyway. Using debt collector attorneys is just another tactic for CAs to use.