bench trial tomorrow!

What is your attorney doing about the failure to produce the documents. He should also be the one writing the letter to the court asking for an adjournment and a conference to handle outstanding discovery issues.

Hockeyman is right. He should have been the one to request continuance...

well, my original attorney has been out of town for two weeks! Then he decided that I should have a lawyer that specializes in collections handle the case. He has also been unavailable and will be until monday. I was told to go to the trial, ask for a continuance and tell the judge that discovery is still not complete. If the judge rules, they will fight to get it vacated.
I was pissed about the unavailability of the attorneys, but there isn't too much io can do! So any advice as to how I should handle myself would be good. Should I bring the copy of the validation letter I sent after the hearing to the trial to show the judge I did request proof from the plaintiff, and that they have just not responded?

Bring as much documentation as possible in case a continuance is not granted. If you need to get another attorney try naca.net They have some great attorneys that specialize in fdcpa law.

yeah, I was all excited to go to court because they haven't had any evidence except for some bogus statement by a clerk saying she has knowledge of the debt. If it is still in the SOL, why can't they report it with the credit bureaus? I disputed the original creditor entry off last month! (7 years! GET IT OFF!!! LOL!) But i don't want to admit the debt is mine either, you know? I think I will just ask for the continuance. Also the attorney I was referred to works as the PLAINTIFF in most cases- as in he collects debts and is very good at it. What do you guys think about that?

if the continuance is not granted, I don't want to try to defend myself without a lawyer!!! Scary!

Ok i have a couple questions for ya. First of all is this debt still within SOL?? What state are u in? If it's not why didn't u use that as ur defense??
Also, did u pay this atty to represent u?
Wishing u much luck tomorrow,
Ang

When was the date of first delinquency and what state do you live in?

If it's past SOL you can get it dismissed with prejudice right there by using the SOL as your defense and counter suing for $1,000 plus attorney fees, wages you would have earned if you didn't have to go to court and other punitive damages. The initial 1k is for violation of the fdcpa for filing a suit on a time barred debt.

LOL, Ang and I post almost the exact same thing at the same time.

Great Minds JC!
:lol:
Ang

I live in Illinois. SOL is 5 years. If you can hold on a sec I will find out what the complaint says. I think it is beyond the SOL, and I did use it as a defense, and the plaintiff moved to stike my defense of SOL- they said it was irrelevant until evidence was produced at trial. What I don't get is how they can say they have evidence, when they never shared it with me!

complaint says credit agreement dated 2/24/1999, no delinquent date- (but the bureaus and providian, the original creditor, removed the entries from all 3 bureaus last month when i disputed the entry and also said the 7 years was up)
collection agency- arrow- not on credit report
they also attached a generic copy of terms of contrct to complaint and an affidavit from the clerk of arrow saying she knows the account

in the motion to strike my sol defense- I just defended based on the 99 info they gave me- they said that "this is a legal conclusion unsupportive of any facts. In fact, it is contradicted by the first sentence of the affirmative defenses wherein the defendant denies the claim all together."

By the way people, in my answer, I said that I was not in any reciept of this debt or why/how/when I signed a contract, all that jazz.
I then said that the ALLEGED debt was beyond the SOL.

I hate this. But I think I will win this one when it is all said and done.

so would you say the first delinquency date was on or before 11/30/2002? If so you need to try to make that continuance go through. Then have your attorney motion for the court to order them to show the documentation that shows date of last activity. They would try to strike it and say it's irrelevant because it will lock them out on this case.

The "new" attorney has not even gotten my paperwork yet. The "old" attorney- yes I paid him, but I only has to pay him for consultation fees bc he never had to file/prepare papers. I managed to screw that up all on my own....I thought I could handle it by myself, but then things got a little more crazy....

if this is even mine ( i honest could have settled with another CA before this!) the date of last activity would have been before 2002. And if it is off the credit report, he date of last activity would be about 7 years ago, im assuming.
Yeah, I think that as long as this attorney isn't an idiot, i should be able to win or have the judgement vacated.

So you know that the debt is out of SOL. You can use that as your defense to get their claim dismissed with prejudice (meaning that it can never be sued for again) followed by your counter suit for violating the fdcpa because they are suing when they cannot since it is a time barred debt. That will be $1000 in stautory damages, plus your attorney's fees, plus your lost wages, plus punitive damages.

May I ask what county in IL you are in?

I'm fighting a similar Providian case in McHenry county. When I filed my answer I asked for proof of the debt or to have the case dismissed.....their attorney continued the case so they could get the requested docs.

At 2nd court date they still didn't have their proof to show - so they asked for a trail.

I'm very worried & unsure of what to expect & what to do at the trail, which is in a month. I don't have money to hire a lawyer & I feel like they will win just because they are educated in the legal field & I am not.

I'd like to hear how your case went in court.

I have to agree with hokeyman. If you've retained an attorney, he/she should be the one worrying about all this, and filing a motion to continue. Don't worry, you'll probably be better informed than the lawyer sent to represent the creditor.

collection agencies do not always report to th CBR agencies.

The SoL date would have had to expire before they processed papers to sue you, not on or before your court date.

Bring everything you have to trial. It the SoL has expired before they filed then you should be in clear waters.

munchkin130, sometimes attorneys can be very affordable. You should shop around for some in your area. You can start by looking on NACA.net Or you could try your counties legal aid department.

JCEMT - Thanks for the info.

I'll check out NACA.net

As for legal aid - unfortunately, the one not for profit legal aid dept in my county, Prairie State, in only helps people in poverty who are not home owners.

If you are a home owner they will not help you - they think you you should sell your home to pay for your legal problems.

Crazy - right?

Most people consider a home an investment to be able to fall back onto when you do get in trouble. I don't think they believe you should sell your home but look twards the equity you have built into it.

If you're a pro-se litigant, you most likely will get toasted at trial (due to procedural crap, etc.). These guys are banking on you being stupid enough to go into a trial with this mindset (and I will not hold words back when it comes to a trial).

Think about it this way, the average attorney out of law school will have been practicing 8-10 years before they will try a case before a judge/jury. If this is the case, why are you going to play with fire if you're going to get burnt?