I'm being sued!
 

Has anyone any experience with this? Capital One is suing me for 1,500 plus interest (25%!) and court costs; I got a certified letter today. Any advice on how to proceed would be welcome. I cannot get a lawyer (what a surprise--people who can't pay bills can't hire a lawyer, can they?) so I'm going to go it alone. :(

If it's a very old debt, you might want to look into the statute of limitations in your area. It's a long shot, because chances are they wouldn't bother to sue you if the statute has already expired.

That's all I got. Good luck.

Google returned a page from the Oregon section of this site

http://www.lawhelp.org/

that looked informative, so maybe there would be something useful under your state.

Hard to say without details as to what the debt is from and how old it is. If it was before last November, they may have waited deliberately until the new bankruptcy laws were in.

If it's a legitimate debt, you can negotiate. At a minimum, you can get them to drop the interest. Unfortunately, with the new bankruptcy laws, you have lost a lot of leverage.

I would defintely do some Internet research on your state laws as well as get general advice about 'real world' practices.

Here are a few quick links.

State Debt Collection Laws and Publications

Ohio Legal Services - Debt Collection

Good luck. I remember hearing or reading someone complaining about Capital One making a mistake and being real pit bulls about a nonexistant debt or fee.

The new bankruptcy laws have taken all the fun out of racking up huge debt.
Dave Barry once cited the two most common taxpayer mistakes as being
1. Failure to include a return address along with your tax return, and
2. Failure to be a large corporation making huge doantions to key, tax–law writing congressmen.

I would say you problem is a variation of the second.

Too true... there's a saying: If you owe the bank $1,000 and you can't pay, you have a problem. If you owe the bank $1,000,000 and you can't pay, the BANK has a problem.

Well, this was my experience in Colorado several years back for what its worth. Right when I got sick, my bank account blew up which is another long sad story that I won't go into. However, I paid off my creditors as best as I could at the time, but neglected to take care of a check to Domino's Pizza for $12.00. Domino's came back at me two years down the road with fines, fees, penalties and accessments that morphed the original $12 into something like $200! They took me to court over it, and I filled out a form pleading abject poverty which was a 1000% true. The judge looked the whole thing over, got a really annoyed look on his face, glared at the Domino's representative and threw the entire case out. I never even was required to pay the original $12.00!

As far as I know, new laws or no, the US still doesn't have debtor's prison. As far as I know.

Don't ignore it!

They just sued me and ended up taking the money directly out of my checking account!!! They did send me letters and I kept giving them to my ex - it was in both our names, but his debt. Foolish me assumed he took care of it and the week of xmas they withdrew $750 out of my checking!

Again, Don't ignore it!!

What do you think those who loot and pillage do while they are not making commercials? Now that so many people have shifted to Capital One, they have all new jobs ....

It does no good fighting with a company that hires professional warriors. What lawyer's in your pocket?

Bri, first of all, be honest about this. You KNOW you owe them that money. The card is maxed out. You have not been paying what you were supposed to and you did not respond to their constant letters demanding some action on your part. You also ignored any correspondence warning you that it was turned over to a collection agency and you did nothing when that last letter came telling you that they would take you to court if you didn't respond in -x- number of days. This could not have been something out of the blue. Be honest with yourself and us, and then let's go on from there.

The first thing to do is to call the law firm which is listed on the Certified Letter. There is a date they have given you in that letter so you better do something NOW. Be very calm (and not anesthetized) when you call them. All they want is an agreement from you to pay the money and a time frame. You MAY NEGOTIATE the amount that you agree to pay. However, don't come right out with that suggestion right off the bat, work into it. I assume the card is cancelled so that is not the issue, but even so, cut the damn thing to pieces and resign yourself to not being given another one for at least 8 years. Tell the lawyer how sorry you are, you have had lots of problems because of _____ (insert good story) ____ and you are an honest person and bla bla bla but you are totally overwhelmed. Tell them how much you can pay monthly (and you better DO what you promise) and work on from there. I really doubt anybody will insist on the full payment, it serves them nothing to have your debt written off as uncollectable because then the lawyers and collection agency get no money either. They can't get money out of somebody who does not have it, so they will take what they can get. They don't want to have to pay for that lawyer to go to court and find out that it was going to get them nothing. Play it cool and be cooperative, but insist that you have had such terrible reversals that you can't pay it all and you might get a happy surprise. Your credit rating will still be ruined afterwards, but so what, it was ruined anyway.

The important thing is - CALL THEM. You still have time to avoid the worst consequences so do not delay anymore.

And yes, I HAVE been through this. I ended up having to get a lawyer and spend $2,000 of my own money to prove that I did not owe a $6,000 medical debt from a company who neglected to file the insurance claim after one of my hospital trips and thought they would just collect the whole amount from me instead. Got quite a legal education in the process.

Firstly - you have my total sympathy, good luck with what you have to go through.

I don't think my advice would be very useful as I can only assume from the other posts that things are different in the US. But certainly Tonchi's advice seems to fit my experiences - you can make a deal if you open channels of communication. It's better than having the bailiffs at your door (if you even have those?)

Are there any charities or agencies that you could go to? I was helped enormously by a UK charity called Christians Against Poverty who dealt with all my creditors for me. I still paid off most of my debts (about 85% in the end) but it was much easier having someone else negotiate monthly payments on my behalf. Especially as my credit card company refused to make a deal with me - insisted I paid the full amount balance immediately because I'd defaulted on payments. CAP managed to negotiate a monthly payment that was actually lower than what I'd been paying initially because they got the interest frozen.

We also have the Citizens Advice Bureau that offers advice including sample letters to creditors, and an information pack on legal rights.

Obviously neither of these help you, but it's worth looking around to see if you have anything similar - as Tonchi says, no-one benefits if you don't pay, so someone somewhere should be prepared to offer you help.

Good luck.

In reality we DO...... We are all just on house arrest. :lol2:

Look into law firms that take pro bono cases or legal services organizations - they are always willing to help and take on the big guys. If I were licensed and in your state, I'd take your case pro bono - I hate credit card companies.

Maybe some cute guys wil come to take you away.....diet & primp. ;)

i called legal aid today---fifty-five minute wait for a rep. but I put my phone number on the Call Back list. We'll see what happens. I DID call the slime-ball legal firm who is taking the case from slime-ball Cap. One and was told by a very snitty woman named 'Mandy' that regardless, I owed the debt and they would proceed with the hearing, etc. I own no property (unless you consider a 16 year old car worth anything) and have no idea where they think I will come up with cash for them. Out my lovely butt?

I bet you could clear the debt and have plenty change left over. :redface:

I had a similair story just happen
I went to get a payday loan for like 500 dollars
i continually paid the intrest but not the loan amount well i then hit somehard times and was unable to pay the loan the company then said that they would garnish my wages. Well i work for a state senator here in illinois when he saw this was happening he reminded or record keepers that he had just passed a law that was grandfathered in saying that these short term loan places
could only charge you so much interest once you had paid the loan off in
the interest (that includes the price of the original loan plus the first 2 times of intrest) you were no longer in debt since i paid them 250 a month for like 6 months i had more than paid the amount so my lovely boss/ state senator
is suing them on my behalf to regain the lost money

So the moral of this story is if you can't be a politician work for one

...maybe cut back on the ether?

What did you tell/ask snitty Mandy?

Although you do have a lovely butt, don't worry about this hassle. The credit companies play their percentages and lose sometimes. Seriously, the courts don't throw people out of home over this stuff. I know people in this situation that just moved forward with their careers, even thru personal bankruptcy.

Focus, take it to the next level, Brianna, get your Master's degree and don't look back.

You might like being the master instead of the slave. :borg:

Master, slave, whatever, it's all fine. I appreciate the Good Vibes and am going to do just that: go on my merry way. I will answer them in the 28 days they gave me to answer and if they want to see me in front of a judge--ok. It's all gist for the mill when I write my own Million Little Pieces and become an insufferable millionaire. Except my stuff will be verifiable RE: all the times I've been to court lately. I'll just keep living in my own private Idaho and be happy!

PS--I told snitty Mandy that I had no income and no property but this does not dissuade Capital One! Oh, no! I fear they may ask for some decision involving a pound off my aforementioned butt. And I am going to see if my University can help--they do offer Legal Services to students.

OH, yeah! after I had my snitty exchange with Mandy, she told me to "have a nice day." Why do they do this? Why do people who are messing with you insist you have a nice day? Like the cop who has just given you a ticket or similar? WTF?

Capital One? Looks like they found another job for the vikings. Mandy's last name must be Sigridsdottir.

Along with everyone else don't ignore it. I know here in Texas they will put a default judgement, then you are thouroughly screwed and your credit is shot to hell. I just had to go to the court and submit a letter stating what my intentions were on the debt. The clerk said that it was all they need,and the lawer couldn't ask for a default judgement cause I responded. Called the original company worked out a deal, called lawyer told him to confirm, and we are a done deal. So don't ignore it, and follow thru with whatever you work out. Cap One would love to at least get some money from you so they usually will deal.

Can they still garnish wages?

edit: oh, n/m -- I guess they still can do this. :mad:

I've no wages to garnish. I've NO INCOME. I don't see how they'll get blood from me as I don't bloody have any.

What are you living on?

I would still tell them your situation and when you think you might be able to pay them.

I live on savings and I pay no mortgage.

Are your savings more than what you owe them?

I know you want to use your savings to cover the costs of living, but they want you to use your savings to pay off your debt to them.

My money and my house are hidden. They are under my sister's name.

Call back and see if you can get someone other than Snitty Mandy and instead of telling them you can't pay, tell them you want to pay but you can only afford $x per month, can they work something out to avoid you both having to go to court. And then get a job flipping burgers for a few hours a week to provide the money you need to pay.

The bottom line is, you took the money, you owe it, you need to pay it back and you need to do that in a way which will minimalize damage to your future i.e. never being able to shop on the internet (no CC), get a cellphone on a regular contract (no CC), get a house, car......

Kinda like your Dad (prior to an ass whipping) saying "Now this is gonna hurt me a lot more than it'll hurt you." :comfort:

Hi Brianna - only just caught this - hope I'm not to late to add my two-pennuth!

All the card companies can be PITAs, but one thought I had that may be of possible help is that when new laws are introduced over here there is seldom the right given to apply these retroactivley. So if your debt is older than the introduction date of the new bancruptcy ruling I would check (or query) the right of the company to go after you using the new law as its basis. As to clearing the debt, I agree with most others that the worst thing you can do is ignore it.

It's better to talk than to write. Be firm about the position you believe applies (that they cannot rely on an amendment to the law introduced after the debt was substantiated), argue their premise that interest is due. If they have failed to notify you before, demand proof of debt (if it is some time ago it is reasonable to expect that you have no record available yourself - if the company cannot furnish sufficient proof then you would IMO be within your rights to reject their demand - I managed to do just that a couple of year's back over here with a government office), and if it does come to the crunch then try to negotiate a lower figure - offer at best/worst the capital sum without interest as a means to settle, arguing this will save them time and cost to reach an agreement at a lower level than to have to fight for something that is questionnable as to whether it is due or not. If you get no change out of the first line customer contact ask to speak to a supervisor - the desk person probably does not have authority to agree anything - the supervisor should have.

Good luck!

I'm sure the laws in different states vary, but here in Oklahoma, the statute of limitations is seven years after the date of the last payment made on the debt.

update: Legal Aid sent me a very nice, "sorry but we can't help you" letter so I answered the counts and mailed if off yesterday. We'll see what happens from there. You know what is interesting? If you can't afford a lawyer and Legal Aid won't help you and you try to do it on your own, if you don't do it in the RIGHT FORMAT the judge can dismiss your paperwork. THAT'S american justice for ya. It's only for the rich, not for americans. I have lots of dirty, naughty words to type right now but I won't.

anyway, I'm trying to just LET IT GO and see it as a learning experience.

Keep in mind, while you mull those dirty words;
You've no right to expect them to make it easy for you not to pay the money you owe them.
Just because they're rich and you're not doesn't mean they shouldn't want to collect the money you owe them.
Laws are written by the rich to make it easier for them to collect the money you owe them.
Your problems stemming from bad luck, bad choices or bad mojo have no bearing on the balance of money you owe them.
It's not personal, simply good business, to pursue the money you owe them.
They employ a sizable staff with nothing to do but collect the money you owe them.
:cool:

...and if fewer people tried to weasel out, the rates on credit cards would be cheaper.

Or their profits higher. ;)

I doubt it. They take what it costs them to do business, and add on what the market will bear. If it cost them less to do business, the cost to the users would be less, because prices would driven down by competitive pressure.

If you don't think consumer credit is a competitive market, look at your mailbox sometime...assuming you have a decent credit history. I get solicitations all the time offering me credit cards...my Visa card has stamped on it: "Member Since 75". (They mean 1975).

Erm...how do you answer a count that says:"You signed a contract to pay off this loan under these terms and didn't."?
Funny, the courts have rules just like the credit cards do. And they're *just* as sticky about them. Obviously they're in cahoots.

I find interesting your conclusion that "the rich" are somehow not "americans", since you feel justice is only for the former.

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/ch/1995/ch950125.gif

Some people would say "justice" is when you honor the terms of a contract without being dragged into court. Obviously this is some other meaning of "justice" with which I am not familiar.

you know what, friends? fuck off. You answer the counts thusly: I owe the amount stated. I am in default.

GO fuck your happy selves, Maggie-holier-than-thou and xob. have a good time while doing it.

oh, and Maggie? I think you're a guy. Or someone who is, like, twenty.

god.

Sure just like the Oil Companies.

If you don't think consumer credit is a competitive market, look at your mailbox sometime...assuming you have a decent credit history. I get solicitations all the time offering me credit cards...my Visa card has stamped on it: "Member Since 75". (They mean 1975).[/quote]Mine says 1970, so what? It's not the same bank because they keep gobbling each other up so the competition, which appears intense, is really between fewer players.....just like the Oil Companies. :borg:

If you want straight answers to real problems, come to the Cellar.
If you want unconditional ego stroking, get a dog.
You fucked up, you owe them money, it would/will be a hardship to pay them. I can sympathize with your position, but wah-wah, they're pickin' on poor little me, don't fly. :p

Here's an example from the Current Events page of your local newspaper. UAUA had signed contracts with groups to pay a certain amount, and **they** got a break, yeah? Nothing wrong with your point, MaggieL, as long as you're not looking for any compassion, helpful advice, or legal insight. Otherwise I have no complaints. Good posts.

Contracts are made, satisfied, broken, renegotiated, cancelled every day. Nothing magical about a contract. They have their place. But if you're contending that they are the omega of all human interaction, you're guilty of a lack of imagination at the least. You sound pretty together, actually. Your postition in this thread is clear: you owe, so pay. But that's not really what Brianna was asking when she opened the thread, or with her updates. At best, your posts are somewhat off topic.

There is more to it than only satisfying the terms of a contract.

I don't understand why it's a good thing to be a member since xxxx. I have switched card companies a few times over the years to get better deals. Shopping around is quite often a much better thing than remaining loyal to a card with poor terms.

That's only true if you pay interest....I don't. :)

Now THAT'S some funny-ass shit. :lol:

One of my daughters is older than twenty. (As I pointed out, my Visa card is over 30.) Not sure what point you're making with *that* accusation. Would I be expected to be more "sympathetic" if were 18? Or 40? I somehow must have missed the announcement that the Cellar had become the Brianna Support Group and thus completely spoiled your Pity Party.

Sorry, but I'm kinda short on sympathy. I was out of work for the last four years...I continued meeting all my financial obligations, including my share of putting the aformentioned daughter through college and continued payments on my mortgage. That and the associated taxes and penalties (10%, not peanuts) have completely gutted the savings I was hoping to eventually retire on.

But I paid my debts.

As for being a "guy", my passport, D/L, birth cert, pilot's licence and concealed carry permits (PA and FL both) all say "female". But obviously if I was a *real* woman I'd be awestruck by your plight...you know:

"Awwwwwwwwww....."

Boo-hooing over running up a $2.5k bill and then complaining how unfair it is that you now can't get free legal assistance to avoid a judgement just sounds...well...whiny. Some folks seem to have a problem distinguishing "justice" and "charity"...when they don't get freebies to which they feel entitled, to they complain that it's "injustice".

maggie? Forgive me. After reading about your sad life and how you've triumphed, you are now MY HERO! I plan on emulating you in all things, except your obvious bitter heart. I'm going to take a wild guess here and suggest your a human resources-type of drain on society? Anyway, good luck with that.

I will say this. I came to the Cellar in July of '04, the lowest point in my life. I was suffering from many things, and I had the wonderful fortune of stumbling down the stairs and landing here (I honestly WAS Googling 'Whale Penis' when I found this place!) I have indeed used this forum for a sounding board and I have found many truly wonderful, caring, insightful, brilliant people here. I feel like a found a home, of sorts. You guys have helped me, saved me, made me laugh...made me cry...I am so very happy that I found you all. I thank every one of you for helping me through the very hardest part of my life. You have my gratitude and my heartfelt thanks.

Speak for yourself, Brianna - I care what she thinks.

Some of us know people in substantially deeper shit than you and substantially less capable of digging out who have not given up.

And I also think I know a few other things:

1. If we all turn into a bunch of sympathising ass-kissers then we aren't helping each other at all. I'm not willing to limit my input in a support thread to unconditional acceptance. Learn to handle honesty. I'm not above needing the occasional kick in the ass from folk I trust to level with me.

2. Your "...tough love need not apply" attitude in this thread is a mild form of pre-emptive thread censorship. Your reply to ML is a) devoid of fany actual rebuttal and b) comes across as an emotional knee-jerk. Either get on my bandwagon or not - middle ground or independent opinions are excused in advance.

While I wish to be supportive, I need to hear some granule of concern from you at least acknowledging a measure of responsibility. All I've read thus far is unrestrained contempt for an atty who won't take time away from someone who is being treated unfairly to represent someone who wants a "get out of owing people some money" card.

Bringing this back to the original issue (well trying to - time to draw the proverbial line I think M & B...), in today's paper an article reporting how a guy who had been charged ridiculous admin charges by his bank every time a direct debit was cancelled because of insufficient funds was given out of court settlement by the offending (offensive?) bank of £5,000 - double the amount they had charged him originally.

Clearly the bank did not want a legal judgement on this as we have a law known as the 'Unfair Terms and Contracts' legislation - if they lost in court that could cost them a fortune from all those guys who pay up without a fight. The guy argued that the charges were not represanative of what it cost the bank and that they were an unfair profit-making scheme and an unrealistic penalty. Seems a transferrable argument to me....

Don't take what is being demanded as set in stone. Rules laid down by suppliers aren't always right or upheld by the Courts. There may be mileage in your problem yet. Just because the supplier says you should pay a ridiculous level of interest to settle an old debt doesn't mean you are therefore bound to do so. The capital will be hard to argue as not owing, but I reckon the rest is potentially negotiable. Worth the effort, I reckon, to spend a few hours arguing, if the result could be a few hunderd $ saving...

[quote=Beestie]While I wish to be supportive, I need to hear some granule of concern from you at least acknowledging a measure of responsibility[quote]

You don't need to hear anything from me. I asked for advice from anyone who'd been thru a smiliar situation and I got some good input. If the thread made you mad, you could just skip it. I skip threads and posts from people all the time, I'm not the worse for it. I suggest you try it. Your blood pressure is up.

Actually I'm a software engineer...been one for over thirty years now. The four year hiatus wasn't offered as evidence that I've had some sort of "sad life", but as an explanation as to why your being held to the terms of your credit contract doesn't seem like such a huge injustice.

Overall my life has been pretty decent, except for the tech bubble that started about 1995 with a bunch of people with no particular talent getting sucked into the industry by the lure of easy high-paying jobs and ended with the investment bankers running out of "pump" and switching to "dump", with all the chaos that ensued.

Since family obligations kept me tied to the Philly area (where the bursting bubble was felt a bit harder than some other places) I had to ride it out here rather than migrating to one of the few places where there was some work. What a bitter, biiter heart indeed I must have to not melt over your tragic tale of woe and abuse at the hands of the Evil Capitalists and their Geedy Henchmen.

Anyway, all you had to do to stave off this crisis was maintain the minimum payments until such time as you're able to pay down the debt.

As long as we're indulging in "wild guesses", is it possible you're now stuck because of this: http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/...ts/P117014.asp ?

Probably not...the mandatory increase in minimum payments is only going into effect now, and you're already at the suing-for-judgement stage. So you're apparently on the docket now for repeated failures to pay a 2% minimum monthly, which on $2500 would be $50. Not much to avoid the kind of trouble you're now in.

How many payments did you miss before they filed? They only do that when they're convinced you're *never* going to pay up and have to settle for a judgement that they probably won't be able to collect on. I expect they'll sell that at a huge discount to some cheesy collection agency, who'll do the usual wage garnishment/car seizure kind of thing to make something on the deal.

They'd much rather have you make minimum payments almost forever.

By the way...given the context, for *you* to suggest that *I'm* a drain on society is pretty ironic, don't you think? Pot, kettle, that sort of thing. Red herring, etc.

Oh, Maggie. I'm going to guess that you know nothing at all about me or my situation-after all, how could you? You really only are concerned with the ugly things in life. I began this thread looking for info--nothing else. The only thing I said about injustice is that it seems as though the system is skewed towards people who can afford an attorney; people who cannot afford one can't even begin to answer because the information or answer isn't in the right FORMAT. That seems absurd to me. You may think it's wonderful. Whatever. You like the credit card companies. You think they play fairly and squarely and everyone who is in trouble certainly deserves it. Is everything so black and white for you? That must be nice.

And it's 1.5K, not 2.5k. But I don't expect you to pay attention to silly details, either.

I'm going to pray for you, Maggie.

How about them Steelers? :p

I agree with Maggie completely. It astounds me how many people are irresponsible when it comes to personal finance. Maybe they are taking lessons from the goverment (but thats anothery story)

According to a BusinessWeek report, total household debt -- including credit cards, car loans, mortgage, student loans, etc. -- topped 100% of disposable annual income last year for the first time ever.

On average, we carry eight cards per person and have a balance of $8,400 in credit card debt. Twenty percent of our cards are maxed out, according to CardWeb.com.

A simple lesson for personal responsiblity. Misery, in this case, is self-inflicted.

It astounds me how many people assume I am in the wrong. I have not said how this debt came about. This is part of a divorce debt. Not that anything matters anymore. You are off and running now.

Sorry, I forgot exactly how trivial it was. So the minumum payments were in fact only $30, not $50. Again, how many did you miss before they pulled the plug on you?

Legal documents are required to be in proper form to make it possible to process them efficiently and interpret them without ambiguity. Otherwise a lot of expensive people (most of them funded by taxes) would end up spending time trying to read and understand pointless mispelled submissions written with bad grammar in crayon on paper towels.

All you had to do to avoid litigation (which is *always* expensive) was make that $30 minimum monthly. But since you said you have no defense to the action anyway, why waste evrybody's time? Don't file anything, fail to appear, and a judgement will be entered by default...which is the result you're going to get anyway.

Also don't waste effort praying for me; I'm exactly how Goddess indends me to be. Maybe you should focus on taking care of business first.

I would have recommended taking the ex to Judge Judy (no lawyer fees) after the first overdue notice. :)