I put a call in to the lawyers who sent me the letter I discussed in my last post. Today they returned my call. From the sound of things, if I had had a lawyer from the start we could have put up a counter-suit that might have at least reduced the judgment by $4000 to $6000. Their fee is 20% of the suit, so assuming the 20% is standard, I would have had to pay or commit to paying $2000 for representation. Considering that I am "Collection Proof," that is to say that even if the collection agency gets a judgment against me they can't collect on it, paying $2000 to beat a worthless $10,000 judgment seems to me to be a poor investment.
If I had an income, if I had real property to protect, I think I would offer to pay the $2000 as a settlement with the debt collector before I went to an attorney. If they refused the settlement, that's when I'd get legal representation. I figure it's worth a shot to try and negotiate on my own before I get an attorney involved who might do the same thing, in which case I'd be out $4000 instead of $2000.
Either way, the attorney I spoke with today is going to confer with his associates, then I'll call him back next week. If they turn up something, maybe I'll be able to use it on my own.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
An Interesting Letter.
Somewhere around October 22 I received a rather interesting letter. This letter could be summed up as "Hey, we see you're being sued and don't have any representation. You know, we're a law firm with a lot of experiences in cases like yours... We might even be able to get you some money if they screwed up in their collections attempts... Wanna hire us?"
Now, I have no money. I have no income, so I have no way of paying for a lawyer. That's why I filed in pro se, which is legalese for I'm defending myself without the protection of a lawyer. If I had the money I would certainly hire someone to represent me, it's the easiest way to gain the full benefit of their schooling and years of experience in matters that are mostly way over my head. Even so, if I had the money for a lawyer, I still wouldn't hire a bottom feeder that found my case in the public database and decided to take a shot with a professional looking form letter. Still, since I don't have the money to hire a lawyer, I can certainly afford to mine the bottom feeders for useful information.
The third subheading of the packet included with their letter is titled What are the Laws That Protect You?. Here is something useful. There is a class of laws that protect consumers from predatory actions of debt buyers. Primarily the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (or FDCPA). That sounds rather important to me; Google finds a Wikipedia article, the full text of the statute, and a pretty good breakdown of the law into plain terms. Reading through the last article at Expertlaw.com doesn't look like there's much I'd be able to do on my own, but it does mention that Illinois, the state where I live and whose court system is handling the law suit. That brings me to another Google search, Illinois FDCPA, brings me back to an article at IllinoisLegalAid.org.
Reading through all of this, I believe I would need to prove that the debt buying agencies have violated the terms of the FDCPA. I don't think I would be able to do so, but I've put a call into the office of the lawyers who sent me the letter that started me on this tangent. Maybe an interview with them will get me some insight into how to go about finding whether the FDCPA has been violated and how to make a valid argument if it has.
Now, I have no money. I have no income, so I have no way of paying for a lawyer. That's why I filed in pro se, which is legalese for I'm defending myself without the protection of a lawyer. If I had the money I would certainly hire someone to represent me, it's the easiest way to gain the full benefit of their schooling and years of experience in matters that are mostly way over my head. Even so, if I had the money for a lawyer, I still wouldn't hire a bottom feeder that found my case in the public database and decided to take a shot with a professional looking form letter. Still, since I don't have the money to hire a lawyer, I can certainly afford to mine the bottom feeders for useful information.
The third subheading of the packet included with their letter is titled What are the Laws That Protect You?. Here is something useful. There is a class of laws that protect consumers from predatory actions of debt buyers. Primarily the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (or FDCPA). That sounds rather important to me; Google finds a Wikipedia article, the full text of the statute, and a pretty good breakdown of the law into plain terms. Reading through the last article at Expertlaw.com doesn't look like there's much I'd be able to do on my own, but it does mention that Illinois, the state where I live and whose court system is handling the law suit. That brings me to another Google search, Illinois FDCPA, brings me back to an article at IllinoisLegalAid.org.
Reading through all of this, I believe I would need to prove that the debt buying agencies have violated the terms of the FDCPA. I don't think I would be able to do so, but I've put a call into the office of the lawyers who sent me the letter that started me on this tangent. Maybe an interview with them will get me some insight into how to go about finding whether the FDCPA has been violated and how to make a valid argument if it has.
The Story So Far
The purpose of this blog is to keep a record of my steps I take in defending myself that others might find helpful if they are in a similar situation. It's worth noting that most of my links from this blog will be for information and forms specific to Chicago. If you're not in Chicago, Google should be able to find you a local resource that is hopefully equivalent, if not better. I am not a lawyer, so I can't give out legal advice. All I can do is provide this guide, such as it is.
On Friday September 25, 2009 I was home alone, packing. I had to be out of my apartment by October 2nd. There was a knock on the door, which was odd since we had a buzzer system to let folks into the building. It was a man in a Kevlar vest with a badge, and he had papers for me. I had been served papers informing me that I was being sued for $10,593.26 in credit card debt.
I'm disabled due to illness. Until I became disabled I had a Chase Manhattan credit card with a credit limit of $5,000. I used it to buy a computer and some peripherals for a total of just over $4,000. I was making double payments to pay down the principal until I fell ill and defaulted on the card. The debt grew from Chase's late fees and interest until it wound up being charged off and sold to a third party collector, who inflated it with their own interest and late fees before selling it to a third party collector, who inflated it with their own interest and late fees before selling it to a third party collector, ect. Later I would learn the casual term Lawyers have for this kind of thing is "Zombie Debt" it should have died, but it won't.
So I was coming up on the tail end of a big move, and I became involved in this law suit. Fun stuff. I stopped packing for the day and hopped online where I found the site for Illinois Legal Aid. Specifically of use were their pages on What To Do When A Creditor Sues You and their link to the Cook County specific Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services (C.A.R.P.L.S.).
Following advice from C.A.R.P.L.S., I filled out a form to have my court fees waived since I have no income. I took the competed form along with a completed form for my Appearance to the court house listed on the summons and complaint papers I was served with. Once the waiver was filed and I received the Order from the judge that my fees were waived, I filed the Appearance, and the clerk there gave me two copies of the Appearance, one for my records and one to be mailed to the lawyers who are representing the company suing me. This took about a half hour once I had gotten to the court house.
Since the sum of the law suit was more than $10,000 I also had do file an Answer, a form that responded to each of the lines in the complaint saying what I agreed with and what I had an argument against. In Chicago, C.A.R.P.L.S. keeps a help desk in the same room where all the paperwork must be filed, so I took my Answer to this desk to have them look over my responses, just to make sure I had answered everything completely and worded it all correctly. Once we were satisfied with my Answer, I had it notarized, made three copies, and filed the notarized original. Once I was home I mailed off a copy to the lawyers representing the company that is suing me, and now I have nothing that must be done until the court date in December. However, just because there is nothing that must be done does not mean there is nothing that can be done.
On Friday September 25, 2009 I was home alone, packing. I had to be out of my apartment by October 2nd. There was a knock on the door, which was odd since we had a buzzer system to let folks into the building. It was a man in a Kevlar vest with a badge, and he had papers for me. I had been served papers informing me that I was being sued for $10,593.26 in credit card debt.
I'm disabled due to illness. Until I became disabled I had a Chase Manhattan credit card with a credit limit of $5,000. I used it to buy a computer and some peripherals for a total of just over $4,000. I was making double payments to pay down the principal until I fell ill and defaulted on the card. The debt grew from Chase's late fees and interest until it wound up being charged off and sold to a third party collector, who inflated it with their own interest and late fees before selling it to a third party collector, who inflated it with their own interest and late fees before selling it to a third party collector, ect. Later I would learn the casual term Lawyers have for this kind of thing is "Zombie Debt" it should have died, but it won't.
So I was coming up on the tail end of a big move, and I became involved in this law suit. Fun stuff. I stopped packing for the day and hopped online where I found the site for Illinois Legal Aid. Specifically of use were their pages on What To Do When A Creditor Sues You and their link to the Cook County specific Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services (C.A.R.P.L.S.).
Following advice from C.A.R.P.L.S., I filled out a form to have my court fees waived since I have no income. I took the competed form along with a completed form for my Appearance to the court house listed on the summons and complaint papers I was served with. Once the waiver was filed and I received the Order from the judge that my fees were waived, I filed the Appearance, and the clerk there gave me two copies of the Appearance, one for my records and one to be mailed to the lawyers who are representing the company suing me. This took about a half hour once I had gotten to the court house.
Since the sum of the law suit was more than $10,000 I also had do file an Answer, a form that responded to each of the lines in the complaint saying what I agreed with and what I had an argument against. In Chicago, C.A.R.P.L.S. keeps a help desk in the same room where all the paperwork must be filed, so I took my Answer to this desk to have them look over my responses, just to make sure I had answered everything completely and worded it all correctly. Once we were satisfied with my Answer, I had it notarized, made three copies, and filed the notarized original. Once I was home I mailed off a copy to the lawyers representing the company that is suing me, and now I have nothing that must be done until the court date in December. However, just because there is nothing that must be done does not mean there is nothing that can be done.
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