I need advice, Please help

Get a lawyer, but look at NACA.net and get a lawyer who knows FCRA and fdcpa. You can defend yourself, but you will need to do lots of research. Basically what they sen't doesn't even come close to validation. At court you can force them to validate by requesting it in discovery, then when they can't provide it, you motion to get the case dismissed with prejudice AND countersue for violations...they already violated by not validating properly and taking you to court.

ok, some thoughts

first, this lawyer, is he representing himself, or is he representing the CA you have previously been dealing with? This is important for many reasons--for example, you asked for validation from the CA. If this attorney is a collection attorney and the debt is now his, then you would have to ask for validation from him now. Validation must be requested from each new owner of the debt if it passes hands. A lot of lawyers are collectors as well, so this is a good possibility.

Next, the order of events. Did they serve you with the summons before or after you requested validation? If the same creditor still owns the debt, and you asked for validation before they filed a lawsuit, then the lawsuit is not legal. fdcpa does not allow a CA to continue any collection efforts once they have received a DV request, until they have satisfied that request. I hope you still have copies of your DV letter, proof that they received it, and their letter in response--it is all evidence if this is the case.

If they started the lawsuit before you asked for validation, then you need to file a motion for discovery in court and demand proper validation that way. If they cannot provide it, then as golden said, request dismissal with prejudice. "with prejudice" is important-it means that they cannot sue you over this debt ever again.

But I just wanted to point that out--this is not an automatic case of FDCPA violations. It depends on who actually owns this debt still and what order the events happened in. Can you clarify these for us? The paperwork you have about the lawsuit will name the plaintiff--if it is the same as the attorney's office, then the attorney owns the debt. If it is the same as the collector you sent that DV request to, then they still own it.

The attorney doesn't own the debt they representing the debt collector who purchased the debt from another debt collector. the original creditor charged off the account. I sent the validation letter to the debt collector first and he replied by sending me the original creditor name and the amount I owe. His attorney sent me a letter asking to pay or I can dispute it withing 30 days and they will suspend collection until they validate, so I did send the attorney a DV letter anyway and they didn't validate, two weeks later I recieved the courts papers. how do I file for discovery is there a format I have to follow and when, I have to answer the court by monday or the lawsuit. Thanks

OK, reed--when you sent the attorney the DV letter, did you send it certified mail return receipt?
Please tell me you did.....if so, you will have the green card that the USPS sends to you as proof that they got this letter from you.
If you have this, you need to use it as grounds for dismissal of the entire case, because if they got a DV letter from you and then filed a complaint in court without answering the DV first, they just illegally filed suit. Federal law does not allow any debt collector to take any collection action against you once they get a DV letter from you--until they have satisfied your DV request. You will need the green card from that letter and a copy of the letter itself.
If you have these items, then in your answer to the court, you must make mention of this. Basically, after you answer the paragraphs in plaintiff's complaint, you then type a paragraph that will read something like this:
[quote][/quote]
Sorry to make that so long, when I get onto something I can drag it out sometimes....
But you get the idea. Also, if you sent these letters by CMRR, you will also want to include a copy of the letter you sent to the CA as well as the card from USPS on that one. I really hope you sent them that way. Otherwise, you will have a hard time proving that you sent those DV letters. Unless, of course, the response letter you got from the CA actually mentions the DV letter you sent them. Something like "in response to your request", for example. If something like that is on there, you will be able to show that you requested it, the CA never provided it, and then continued to act anyways.

Skydiver, Thank you for your reply, I sent the DV letter to the Debt Collector certified mail and they did reply to my Letter but like I said it only had the amount and the original creditor that was there validation, for the attorney I sent them DV letter via express mail and I have the tracking number and checked on USPS website that it was received and they denied they received when I called them, but I was told that the attorney who is representing the debt collector does not have to validate. But the reason I sent the attorney the DV letter because they told me by writting they will validate if I requested and they will suspend collection. what do you think.

here's the thing--the attorney's office lied to you if they told you that they do not have to validate. The fdcpa, in section 803, makes it clear that this attorney is in fact a debt collector by definition, and therefore is subject to all the laws in the same way. This is why they sent you the letter with the disclaimer on it about "if you dispute within 30 days" because the same federal law requires them to disclose that to you. They are lying--its what lawyers are good at.

OK, so you have proof that they received it--perfect. The tracking information when combined with the receipt will show where you sent it and that they got it. That will work. Now, there is some disagreement as to the timing issue--by that, I mean this...how long after the first letter from the lawyer did they file this complaint with the court? They gave you 30 days to dispute it, but if they filed the suit in court before that 30 days expired, that could work in your favor as well.

Now, you need to gather up all the receipts from sending those letters, all the copies of the letters themselves, and copies fo all the letters they sent to you. Hopefully you still have everything. If you do, let me know, and I will help you write the answer you need to send to the court. It looks like they screwed up big time and you stand a good chance of getting this case dismissed. You want to make sure that you move for dismissal "with prejudice". That means they cannot ever sue you again on this debt. Without prejudice allows them to bring suit again in the future if they dig up more evidence.

Let me know if you have all those receipts/letters. We will go from there.

Skydiver, Thank you so much for educating me , The lawsuit was filed after the 30 day. I do have all the letters with receipts, and I did get the form from the court to answer the lawsuit by monday. Can you guide what to write in the form, I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT. for your information I was looking at the district court web site and found ou that this debt collector had filed at least 50 lawsuit in the last year and won all of them by default. this was free information that was provided on the website Interesting?

More than likely the reason why they won those cases is because those people didn't show up in court and so the judge granted a default judgment. Don't let that happen to you. Someone will be along shortly to advise you...maybe send a pm to lawstudent...just a suggestion since you are on such a short time frame.

OK, when it comes to a summons, there are going
to be some paragraphs, most likely they will be numbered. It may look
something like this:

??This is just an example, of course, but this is how you handle this part: