Wolpoff&Abramson advice-arbitration

Posted by Ellie (68.4.118.129) on May 23, 2004 at 01:48:02:

I just got a letter from these "wonderful" people that said "as you know, our clients (MBNA/Visa) have filed an Arbitration proceeding against you". They say they are giving me a chance to "resolve the matter and avoid proceeding to an arbitration review which (the award against me) may be enforced in a state court under applicable law". At first I thought they were just trying to collect by scaring me and was going to ignore it, but now I am starting to wonder if I should pay attention.

Here is my situation. We are in CA. I originally owed $17K, but it has risen to $23K after all the finance charges and other junk they tacked on. I had to stop paying just over a year ago when my medical problems became bad enough that I couldn't work. My spouse has to work 70+ hours and we still barely scrape by, paycheck to paycheck. I don't own any property at all and have no savings. My spouse and I have a joint checking acct. (but there isn't more than enough to pay the monthly bills in it). I didn't earn any of the money. Maybe he should open up his own checking account and close the existing one? We live in a community property state, so I am afraid he will be effected by this. This was not a joint account, it was in my name only, although he did have an "additional card" on my account at one time.

The creditors are calling me at least 5-10 times a day; I never answer though. I have caller id and just let the answering machine get it. Sometimes they leave messages, but they usually just hang up.

My questions are:

1. Can I refuse arbitration? Should I? Or is there no point?
2. Should I file for bankruptcy? I have one other debt (an optional repossession of a car) that I think may have a similar situation coming up soon, although I haven't heard anything about it. I REALLY don't want to, but I think I am going to be sued.
3. Can they garnish my spouse's wages even though all the debt is in my name only, because CA is a community property state?

Thank you so much for any advice!

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