Help! Complaint received by Apothaker & Associates
By the way, I'm in PA. (AA letters are coming from NJ.) Oh, an
By the way, I'm in PA. (AA letters are coming from NJ.)
Oh, and Merry Christmas to everyone!
Next steps were taken, issue appears resolved/closed!
I was a bit surprised by the lack of response on this forum. Not sure if it was either nobody succeeded in the same situation, or if the lawyers on this site didn't want to dive into the question. Nonetheless, I decided to follow up my own account with my own resolution, with the hope that it helps someone else in the same situation. It saved me over $13,000, and that's something.
Four months later, and I believe it's safe to say that this issue seems closed. As a result of the sequence of steps I last took in February 2011, it strongly appears that, by now, Apothaker will NOT be pursuing this debt any further. (And if they do, I'll be ready for them.)
Essentially, the burden of proof has been placed squarely on Apothaker, who ceased further legal pursuit once my answer/response to their complaint was made.
I am not a lawyer, nor have I taken any formal legal training. But if you invest the hours it takes to learn how to fight properly, it will be worth your time to save yourself money and stress.
I noticed that a ton of complaints in my county alone have been filed by Apothaker on behalf of AMEX over the past few months. (It's amazing how much information is public, once you have the tools to search civil cases yourself.) So, I'm thinking this information may help a few out there who choose to take advantage of this approach. If you owe between $4,000 to $30,000, you are in a good debt range to fight the claim. If you owe less, you might as well settle, or pay the small amount; and if you owe more, they may continue to come after you since it's worth their time. But, this advice is still for anyone.
If you oppose this advice, save your hate if you have anything to say about how not paying back a debt is wrong and how avoiding paying back is sneaky. What's sneaky to me is how financial institutions sought vulnerable college students and enticed them with high interest rates to go along with high credit limits, or how corporations drove interest rates through the roof to the point of negative amortization where you could only afford to pay the interest and remain in the same monthly debt hole, and how credit card companies received tax forgiveness by selling bad accounts to legal offices specializing on capitalizing in debt collection by harassing hard-working individuals in a financial bind trying to dig their way out by constantly reaching them at their office phones and phoning family relatives and neighbors. If it was legal to create a financial mess, then there's nothing wrong with following the same laws to get out of a financial mess.
Steps to keep in mind if you are in the same legal battle:
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- How to read a civil court summons (so you understand the charge against you)
- Civil Procedure Flow Chart (so you can visualize the flow of your complaint)
- List of Affirmative Defenses (so you can arm yourself with possible defenses against the charge against you)
- Propria Persona v. Pro Se (very important to know how you want to represent yourself in your legal submissions.)
With those tips, there's some prep-work on your part. But it's worth it. After you check out that information, the following will make better sense:
Draft/submit your Answer.
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- Defendant reserves the right to amend and/or add additional Answers, Defenses and/or Counterclaims at a later date.
In my case, after I submitted the Answer, the plaintiff was forced to respond (using Reply to New Matter) to some of the points I brought up in my Answer. This was additional work for the plaintiff, which serves their asses right for making me lose sleep over a situation where I didn't have any money to provide (was going through foreclosure) and they dropped the hammer on me anyway. Now, they are on their heels, and won't be touching me anymore, because they know it will cost them more to fight me in court than to walk away.
Remember: they have to prove every charge. Are they the original account holder entitled to collect this debt? Did they include a full account number in their claim? Did they include a signed contract as an exhibit in their complaint? Did they include an itemized list of expenses and interest charges? If not, then chances are they don't have any idea where the original binding documents are, and therefore can't move beyond a simple claim to you -- in hopes that you do nothing and then they can collect without any effort. (They usually wouldn't include this in a complaint -- but would have to eventually furnish this to prove their case against you if you fight back. Chances are slim that they have all of this.) I don't care if they had a sheriff hand-deliver a summons at your front door, with only a partial account number and a summary amount of money due -- they have NOTHING on you without an original contract signature page and an itemized list of expenses and interest, and so you HAVE to fight it. What do you have to lose? That's right -- nothing but time and effort on your part to prepare yourself and fight back and regain your sanity.
I'm reserving the full contents of my Answer, since I'm still within the legal clock; but you can find samples on the internet.
Follow the advice above, and you have a strong fighting chance.
Good luck.
E C