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Re: original contract with Discover
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Posted by Leeza
(168.98.149.204) on June 13, 2002 at 08:50:32:
In Reply to: original contract with Discover posted by Sky lynx on June 13, 2002 at 08:04:50:
I was sued by a CA that bought my Discover account. I'm not sure if you are represented by counsel, I was a pro se litigant. Anyhow, I would suspect that the attorney isn't the one that's suing you, he's representing Midfirst Bank and that is why he doesn't have the contract in hand. Understand, that when many of these CA sue for money less than 10% of the defendants respond with an answer or show up for hearings. Therefor, CAs win by default. However, when a defendant does show up, that means these CA's attorney actually might have to work to earn their fees. The way I handled my Discover acct., as a pro se litigant was like this. I read the complaint, laughed, and then filed a leave to plead. What that does is give you more time to put together your answer. The courts do not inform the Pltf. that you have requested more time to answer, they enter it into the docket and the Pltf. has to check for himself. Now, these atty's aren't the brighest Harvard or Yale graduates, think of them as an another form of "ambulance chasers". When it was finally time to respond, I file my answer, denying I owed them any money. At the same time I filed a counterclaim. It costed me an extra $15 to file the counterclaim. I'm in Ohio. In my counterclaim I stated that this CA violated certain parts of the FDCA by 1) not providing proof they bought my account. 2) failure to notify me of debt 3) failure to allow me time to dispute the debt. As simple as it may sound, these atty's were stunned and worried! They might actually have to do some work, not only to prove I owe them money but to prove they followed the law as well!! I waited a week and sent a letter offering to settle the account for a percentage of what I owed. I think they were suing for $2300 plus interest. I offered them $500, in two consecutive payments $250 each, I offered to drop my counterclaim, and in return they would get some money and would have to remove their listing from my credit history. At first, they weren't budging, but when they realized they might have to spend money on gathering evidence, interviewing witnesses, flying out CSR from the CA, so on and so forth. It seemed more ideal to take the $500 to offer than to go through that. And the reason being, it is my right to demand a jury trial of the same kind of people that hate attys and credit collectors like me! Who's more likely to win?! Its not to late to amend your answer or file a counterclaim. At this point I would consult an atty, if you feel you are treading on unknown territory. Good Luck
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