Sessoms & Rogers are after me too

Were you actually served by a process server? Was the letter a copy of the judgement, or a letter on their letterhead? You need to check with the clerk of the court to make sure that there is a valid judgement. Some collectors will say they have a judgement when they have not even been near a courthouse. This should be the first step is to verify what they say.

Thanks for the hit. I called the clerk of court today to verify all of this information. She said they do have the judgement against me.

The next step is were you actually served a summons? It seems strange to me that you showed up, and there was no info on you at the courthouse. I cannot help but to wonder if the letter that you received was to misdirect you to the wrong location so that they could secure a default judgement.
I would find out how the summons was served. If you did not receive it, then you could have the judgement overturned for improper service.

I received the copy of the summons in the mail. It was a copy written on their letterhead. A copy was also sent to the courthouse. It was addressed to the Clerk of Superior Court. I was also mailed a copy.

There was also a "Certificate Of Service" that was sent in the same letters from Sessoms & Rogers. P.A.

That does not sound like an actual summons to me. The summons comes from the court, and would not be on their letterhead. (If I am wrong, someone can correct me).

I just found this for North Carolina

North Carolina Process Serving Requirements

Upon the filing of the complaint, summons shall be issued forthwith and in any event within five days. The complaint and summons shall be delivered to some proper person for service. In this State, such proper person shall be the sheriff of the county where service is to be made or some other person duly authorized by law to serve summons. Outside this State, such proper person shall be anyone who is not a party and is not less than 21 years of age or anyone duly authorized to serve summons by the law of the place where service is to be made.

I do not see anything about service being made by mail in North Carolina. I would go back to the clerk of the court and find out how service was made. Take the letter on the letterhead that they claim is a summons. The summons is not required to be made by the sheriff's dept. It is possible that they had a server who did not serve the summons, but stated that you were served. Something still does not sound right about this. I am not an expert on North Carolina law or procedures, but it really looks to me like somone is pulling a fast one here.

I just found something else. The summons can be sent by certified or registered mail with a return receipt. Is that how they sent it. or was it just first class? If they served the summons by mail properly, then you may need to seek legal advice on this one. A default judgement is a very difficult thing to have overturned except for improper service, or improper venue. I am not sure how you would handle being at the courthouse, but not at the right place.

Thanks for the effort looking into this. The summons was sent first class by an attorney working for Sessoms & Rogers. The same attorney was present at the courthouse the day of the hearing before the judge to get the judgement.

It looks like I will have to hire an attorney to help me with this.

You can go to the clerk of the court and find out now to vacate the judgement for improper service. It should be as simple as a form you have to fill out and submit to the court. There is usually someone at the courthouse that can help you out with these sort of things. However, you may want to talk to an attorney and see if there is anything that you can go after them for. I am not sure if there are any FDCPA violations here, but if there are, they may be worth suing the lawyers over. They need to understand that they are accountable to the law, just like everyone else.

If it is not a real summons, then that is a violation of the FDCPA and makes them liable to pay you $1,000 statutory penalty (plus possible court costs and attorney fees) so I would find a consumer advocate attorney fast and sue them.

I will try to make it to the clerks office this week. Where do I argue that the statute of limitations on this account has passed? Is that done before the judge? Is it too late if a judgement has been granted? I am sure the statute of limitations has passed on this account. Thanks again.

I would not even worry about the SOL right now. Focus on the improper service. And as Chrys has said, find a consumer attorney (you can look at naca dot net if you don't know where to find one locally). As he has said, if they sent you a fake summons, then that is an FDCPA violation. If you can get the judgement vacated, then the SOL would be an issue later. Can you look up information for the court clerk online? Where I live in Florida, all of the same information is available on their website.

I am not able to get very much info on the county website, just phone number and address. I can't access my case or anything like that. Is that what you meant? I should be able to make it in there, they are open until 5pm M-F.

I will look for the attorney to help me with this too. I have the letters, summons, etc. that Sessoms & Rogers sent in the mail. They are all stamped with "COPY" on the top right corner. One letter is addressesd to the Clerk of Superior Court, the next page is CACH, LLC vs. with Calender Request Non-Jury, another page addressed to the Clerk of Superior Court to hear a motion to confirm arbitration award, a page stating CACH, LLC vs. with Notice of Hearing, and the last page is the "Certificate of Service" that states the foregoing Notice of Hearing was this day served upon the defendant in this action by mailing a copy thereof, postage prepaid, to the defendant. My name and address are shown, the zip code is wrong. Then it is signed by the attorney from Sessoms & Rogers.

I called the Clerk of Court office this morning. The lady that I spoke with said that I cannot have a civil judgement vacated. She said "it is there forever" Is this correct? She said I have to make payments through their office or with Sessoms & Rogers. Can I fight this with an attorney? The SOL has passed. Thanks.

A judgement can be overturned in the case of improper service, or improper venue. It appears that you were not served properly. You need to know how they verified service of the summons. You may need to get an attorney involved in this one.

Indeed. You may also wish to Google your county civil court. The forms and procedures are on there. If they are not (some counties do have rather paltry information) then search for your state court. Google something like "civil procedure vacate judgment improper service [name of county] [name of state]".

Anonymous,I know you may not want to hear this but if i was you i would just go bankrupt.that way everything would be handled by the federal courts and they would not be able to touch anything.also the state of north carolina signed into law this month and beginning next month debt buyers who try to collect on a debt that is past sol could face lawsuits and civil penalties of up to $4,000.00 per violation.the law will require debt collectors to provide documents proving they own the debt they are trying to collect plus they will have to have the original account number and an itemization of fees the current creditor claims is owed. and that applies to law firms such as sessom's&rogers that work for these debt buyers.