Just my two cents...

Posted by Leeza (168.98.149.204) on July 26, 2002 at 09:16:25:

In Reply to: Please help, paying on debt but summons to court... posted by Wd40 on July 25, 2002 at 20:46:37:

I could offer you a little unprofessional advice. I am not an attorney and any information exchanged is not to be constituted as legal advice. My knowledge comes from research and the experience of being sued by two CAs and winning. I did not have a lawyer as well.

Citibank does not have any obligation to accept your proposal of paying your debt through a credit counselor. Its a professional courtesy often extended on a case by case basis. First, are you absolutely positively sure the credit counselor is paying on your Citibank account? Do you have the statements, cancelled checks or any type of documentation showing that Citibank is being paid? If so, gather those together and do not send or attached them to another piece of paper you file with a court unless they are requested. You take away your leverage by showing your hand, you don't do it in poker, court is the same way. Use it as your strategy. The plaintiff is going to play off your ignorance of the law and intimidate you with every chance he or she gets.

Its good that you did answer the complaint. CAs usually win 80% of their cases by default, due to defendants not responding. However, I'm a little bothered by the counterclaim because it has no merit. To say, that you are suing them because you paid them money and now they sue you, its meritless. Unless, you can find some law or statute in the books that says that a CA is not allowed to sue you while you are making payments on an account. I'm not aware that there is one, there could be. You need a stronger counterclaim, one that states clearly the laws that were violated and what you seek to recoup for this violation.

The first request for interrogatories and request for admissions is something the plaintiff would prepare for you to answer. They are seeking answers to help better prepare their case. You will, too, have a chance and opportunity to prepare your own interrogatories and request for admissions. You must answer the questions, and you must file these answers with an affidavit with the court. Failure to respond to these documents will only make your defense weak and I'm sure the next piece of paper you will get is a Motion for Summary Judgment based on the fact you didn't respond to the pleadings, which is a legal term used for the documents that are filed with the court. Answer the request for admissions, but keep it brief. Either answer "admit" or "deny". DO NOT GIVE EXPLANATIONS! Its basically a yes or no question. However, there may be a question where you can admit in part or deny in part. For example, The balance on said account is $X.XX. You can out right deny that question. But, if the question states, The account is delinquent by $X.XX, your response would be, Admit, with the exception a total of $X.XX has been paid to account and not posted to reflect new balance on account. See how that works? Do not explain nothing to these people unless an explanation is called for, and in that case keep it BRIEF!

In the interim, go to the courthouse to which ever counter you'd file your documents with, and ask for a Leave to Plead. File a Leave to Plead to request additional time (30 days in most cases) to respond to the First Request for Interrogatories and Request for Admissions. This will at least buy you 30 extra days to figure out how you are going to deal with these people and if a settlement is even in the picture.

Remember, the court, being the judge will not get involved until the case is due for trial. I believe in most counties in OH, the pre-hearing is held by a magistrate, who tries to talk both parties into trying to settle this out.

If you need any help, you can include your email address and I'd be happy to point you in the right direction.

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