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Help Please

Submitted by on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 19:55
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I need to give you a little bit of history. Back in the end of January I was contacted by a collection agency who was very abusive. In fact they were emailing me and I got a lot of their abuse in the emails. I filed a complaint with the FTC and the CA Attorney General's Office. An attorney in Los Angeles took the case without me having to pay any fees. He sent them a letter telling them to validate or this would be pursued. They never answered and ignored the letter. They replied back to the Attorney General's Office stating that it was too costly to validate and they would only validate when they took me to court. The case was filed in Federal Court on June 19th. Within the past two weeks, another collection agency started contacting me about the same debt and threatening to come over. They stated the first collection agency is the current creditor.

Last night a man came to the house and served me two summons. He asked me for the last four digits of my SSN and my birthdate. I asked him for identification and he said he worked for himself and didn't have any. He also asked me to sign something and didn't really want me to read it. I said I couldn't because I had no idea who he was. He was defensive, but let it go. He tried to explain the paperwork to me and everything.

I sent the email to my attorney up in L.A. who told me they are not a defense attorney and because I am suing the collection agency in Federal Court they can't help me on this and told me I could answer this by myself by going to the court Website and downloading forms. They said if I answer the claim they can use that in their federal suit to get them to dismiss it. So basically I am on my own for this.

I am in California. I know I need to answer this and I want to answer this. I want these people to know that I will not back down and be bullied. Plus I don't want a judgment entered against me. Does anyone know what my first step is? Can anyone recommend an attorney that doesn't want thousands of dollars up front?

This is actually not my debt. That's why I am beeng trying to get these people to validate, but since January they have refused. I have them refusing among other things in emails.

There are two different summons that don't say much other than I breached a contract with the collection agency.


I wish I could offer some information as one Cali person to another. Have you tried doing a search of Legal Aid? How about calling your local city offices and ask there? Also, some times local senior citizen centers (even if you aren't a senior) have lots of information available on low cost or free legal services. Good luck!


Submitted by Lorri on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 20:02

Lorri

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I have the same question as SOAPLADY. Is this a case of IDT or they have you confused with someone with the same name?

In regards to the rest of your post.


So you have filed suit for violation of the fdcpa in Federal Court but they are suing you in Civil Court for the debt? Am I reading that correctly? You received 2 summons? What was the second for?


If this is IDT, file the FTC affadavit and police report. If the CA has made a bona fide mistake, then you'll have to prove that in court. You might consider withdrawing your Federal suit and adding counter-claims to the civil suit when you answer the summons.


Submitted by NASCAR_Devil on Fri, 08/08/2008 - 03:47

NASCAR_Devil

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