Help in understanding the SOL

The SOL of that state will apply where you originally opened the account.

Who is collecting on the debt? Is it a collection agency hired to collect the amount? If so, check the CA if they are licensed in your state and allowed to do business.

SOL in California for oral agreements is two years from the last payment activity. It seems like your debt is already past the SOL period. Any new payment will renew the SOL from the beginning and the reporting will be done from the latest payment date. You may also come under legal actions if you make a partial payment and stop paying on the balance amount. If you decide to pay, just make sure that you have the complete documentation pertaining to the account and the company updates your account information with the bureaus.

Now thats just the opposite of what I have been told. I was told that because the suit to collect would be filed where you live that the SOL usually applies to your current residency.

Have you verified this info with your state attorney general?

The negative info on your credit report will stay for 7 years from date of default, not last payment.

[quote=I]Any new payment will renew the SOL from the beginning and the reporting will be done from the latest payment date[/quote]

Let me clarify. After a payment is done on the account on which SOL has already expired, the SOL will be renewed and will be calculated from the latest payment date.

I have always found the entire issue of SOL's very problematic and blame the law for being so vague. Here in Florida, I've run into a few issues over SOL and intrepretation. For example, here, the SOL on a credit card (open account) is SUPPOSE to be 4 years, yet I've seen a CA attorney argue in court (and win!) that a credit card is somehow a "written agreement", thus the SOL is 5 years. So I send off an e-mail to the State Attorney General's Office and get back pages of "legaleze" that make absolutely no sense. I think SOL's are very fluid in the courts and subject to the interpretation of individual judges.

Also, I have been advised by a couple of debtors attorneys that SOL begins at CHARGE-OFF, NOT date of last payment, reason being that 6 months or more can go by before an original creditor charges off the debt, regardless of when the last payment was made.

It's all very frustrating.

For a Pacific Bell account the California SOL would probably apply. As to credit cards, etc, the SOL of the state of your residence applies.

Eddie, the date the SOL begins is generally governed by state law. Some states it is the date of last payment.

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Some do try to sue even when the SOL has run. They hope you won't show up, and they'll get a judgment by default. If they ever sue, in your answer claim the SOL as your first defense, and ask that the case be dismissed due to lack of cause.

Judges are lawyers and if a lawyer says this is the law and you as a layperson say this is the law, the judge will side with the lawyer every time unless the law falls under his or her own personal area of expertise and knows differently for a fact. That is rare because most judges are not from the area of consumer law.