Re: Who to pay?

Posted by BJ on September 26, 2001 at 14:49:16:

In Reply to: Re: Who to pay? posted by Fran on September 26, 2001 at 13:35:54:

Fran,

Good questions. Once you've sent letters to the credit bureau's, they are obligated to find if the debts are within the 7 year time span and if they are valid debts from the creditors.

That doesn't mean you still don't owe the debt. Now you need to find out when your last payment to these accounts took place, and then count foward the years to date. After checking your state's Statute of Limitations, see if your debt falls within or outside of these time limits. If it falls outside the SOL time limits, the creditor/collection agency has no legal recourse against you. That doesn't mean they won't stop haggling you though, or that you don't owe the debt still. In this case, the must persuade you to pay voluntarily. If your debt falls within your state's SOL, the creditor/collection agency can still sue. At this point, you must put yourself in their shoes. Litigation cost time and money. There are also geographical disparities to take in considerations. If the creditors/collection agency sue's, they must do it in your jurisdiction or where the orginal agreement was signed. They also must serve you according to the law. Some state laws require you to just send "serve process" papers through certified mail, some only require that the sueing party place an ad in a large newspaper in your city/town. Others can require that you do it only by physical process servers. Another consideration to take into concern is, is your debt small enough for Small Claims court, or is it large enough for a regular "Civil Claims" Court. If it is small claims court, more than likely this would give you an edge because few attorney's attend these, which means the creditor/collection agency will have to send a non-lawyer rep. who may not know how to pursue the case. If you still have questions, please feel free to email me personally and good luck.

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