Served with 'legalish' Papers

You said that the debt is valid lady. So, the law firm is likely to win the case and secure a judgment against your husband.

Your only option is to settle the debt asap. If required, ask your friends to lend money.

Look at the Washington wage garnishment laws from the below given page:

nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/washington-wage-garnishment-law.html

Thank you for condescending response 'mate'.

I have since researched that his wages can be attached/garnished in WA State so asked and answered. Am aware that as a community property state that his debt is my debt and vice versa.

I do dispute the validity of the amount, not the principal debt.

Paying the debt is not my only option. But thanks for your uninformed response.

I was asking for assistance not judgement. Got to ask why are you on this board if this is your contribution?

So, back to my question what do I do next?

Do I request validation of the actual amount, file with the court and the plaintiff?

What is the process?

Keep in mind that late fees and interest have continued to accrue and have been capitalized. Plus you are charged the court and legal fees...that alone can add $1500-$2000.

DVing at this point wont slow down or stop the proceedings. Call the attorney firm and ask them to fax you a breakdown.

Most importantly, you need to file your answer to that summons. You need to address every item number with an answer and file it by the due date with the clerk of courts.

In addition to answering the summons, which I can't give any advice on, you need to take care of your nesessities first.

If you lose in court they can garnish wages, sounds like theres not much to garnish, attach to bank accounts, and put a lien on your home which is already in forclosure.

If things are that bad and there is money to borrow, I wouldnt be settling a credit card debt with it, I'd want to make sure that money is available for a disaster plan.

Next steps depend upon the circumstances of your case.

Is the debt still within your state SOL, and can you prove an expiration of statutue of limitations on the debt?

Is the plaintiff a debt collector? If so, have they complied with all legal requirements under the FDCPA prior to trial? Specifically, have they provided you prior, written collection (dunning) notice? If they have not properly sent you dunning notice, then that WILL, contrary to what has been said, usually shut down the proceedings until such time as they first comply their obligation under FDCPA 809(b) to afford you a 30-day period to request debt-validation.

Whatever your defense is, be it lack of prior regulatory compliance on their part, or a challenge of the debt, in whole or in part, you have the right, prior to trial, to compel their legal disclosure of all factual information from them relative to your defense that is needed to support your arguments before the judge.
So you should first determine what your defense is, then determine what documentation you need to support that defense, and finally file a motion before the court for pre-trial discovery of that information.

If you feel that you are unlikely to win on the merits, then the judge will determine the payment specifics in his or her judgment. If you cant pay the amount at issue, then be prepared in court with financial records to pursuade the judge to issue judgment that is fair to your financial situation. Maybe a reduction of the amount, or maybe an adjustment of time-terms of payment.

Hang on a second here....somethings wrong with this.

Your summons said that you can demand that the plaintiff file the documents with the court?

I could be wrong on this but I think you just got scammed......if they were suing you, they already would have had to file the complaint with the court before you get served. Check with the court clerks office ASAP in your county and find out if they have actually sued you or not. Also, the "summons" that you received, does it list a court on it? If so, is it the court in the county where you live?

Last night after I was served I was pouring over the internet looking for information on what to do with this and it seems the place to start is to validate the debt. I have had nothing previously from Suttell etc. only Capital One. They do have a long history of being bottom feeders was a consistent thread.

No it hasn't been filed with the court, the documents look like the real thing, they say In the 'Superior Court of the State of Washington in and for the County of Snohomish'. There is no case number. The caption is Capital One Bank v My husband. Yes. We live in Snohomish County.

It is within the SOL, the debt has been unpaid since Nov. 2010.

So was laying in bed sleepless last night thinking about how we're going to manage if they take 25% of the $1100 he's making each month, 4 kids, etc. and I got to thinking how do I file a response with the court when there is no case number? There is nothing in which to file into?

Is this where I request that they file it with the court? It states that they have 14 days to do so after I demand it in writing and serve it upon them, I certainly can't respond to the court without a case file #. Where does that leave me for my 'defense' within the 20 days?

As for my defense I really don't have one. We accumulated the debt sure, and we paid it on time every time for years, same as the house we've owned for 10 years. Which the bank is now taking. My husbands income has dropped from 150k to below 40k and we are paying little amounts on other bills chipping away at them but we simply cannot pay the rest right now. Garnishing it will only prioritize the debt over heat for the winter. Its a humiliating position to because he's still working full time his clients just aren't paying their bills. Just hoping to ride it out and wait for the Construction industry/Lending to pick up again and generate work, its not a matter of if only when.

I appreciate your input

Really doesnt matter if they are a "bottomfeeder"...they are representing Cap One as their client. That would be 3rd party collections, not junk debt buying.

Ok...have you looked into bankrutcy? Bottom line is that unless you pay it off or settle it, they will get a judgement against your husband. Reasons why you cannot pay are really irrelevant....they only want to hear about disputes concerning the debt.

Further this I just looked at the 'summons' and its dated August 9th, but was only served last night? So which date to I 'respond' by? I have no proof to say it was served last night.

I would suggest calling or visiting your local courthouse.

You need to follow the rules of civil procedure for our state...they should be on your county courts website.

I have called the Courthouse in my county, there is no record of any case being initiated against my husband.

The Clerk told me that the response is to the firm that served the papers not to the court as there is no court file on record.

Questions;
Do I now send a letter requesting validation of debt to the Law Firm that served the papers? Obviously certified. I have no proof that they even have a legal right to collect the debt. They have a history of collecting overpayment, of not issuing reciept of funds, nor logging payment history, hence I'm hesistant to pay them anything until they verify that they have claim to legally collect this.

Problem is the papers served are dated August 9th, no signature, ID or anything was requested so there exists no proof of when they were served so they could technically go to court on the 30th and file a judgement of default based on the date on the form. What stops them serving you one day prior to the expiration of the 20 days with the papers dated accordingly? It just doesn't seem legal?

Do I request that they file it with the court?

No, that court nonsense is there to scare you. Send a request for validation.

Backing up for a moment....
Did this debt collector ever send you a formal, written collection (dunning) notice within 5-days of their intitial contact with you or their reporting to a CRA? If not, they have violated FDCPA 809(a), and you additionally would have no period running against you to request debt validation.
However, if they did send you dunning notice, and more than 30-days have expired from that date, then any DV you send them has no cease communications bar attached to it, and no requirement for them to do anything (unless you live in Texas). So before relying on the DV process to compel validation, can you give us a bit about the prior history with this debt collector?