letter from chase's attorney regarding request for production of documents

[astwnh]

I got a letter today from Javitch, Block, and Rathbone stating that it is a "request for production of documents." The letter to be filed with the court is missing the case # as well as the court signature, etc,

It's asking for my address, telephone number SS# etc,

Also asks for my employer and their phone # as well as my salary.

In addition, asks for bank account numbers and most recent tax return.

The instructions are really unclear, but I do understand from it that I have 28 days to get the information back which would make it the end of May.

I know that they have a motion for summary judgement, I am sure if they don't actually have the judgement it's only a matter of time.

Met with my attorney and my BK 7 is/was to be filed today, latest Monday.

Of course, I will forward this letter to my attorney ASAP, but do I need to worry about them freezing my bank accounts in the next few days/weeks or will the BK 7 stop this? Or is there more to this process after this letter and they're trying to find assets and $$?

I know that I need to make sure I get a copy of my BK filing to the court that this this particular suit has been filed in. But wasn't sure if I needed to be concerned and plan on making other arrangements for the next few weeks to pay my bills.


thanks for any help you all can give me!

[magyar123]

Tell them to jump into shark infested waters, and don't send them anything. Since your filing day is almost here, and May 28 still over a month away let your attorney handle them.

[HHM]

So long as you file BK BEFORE the deadline to submit the documents, you should be fine.

Request for documents DO NOT need to be signed off by the court. You are in a partial discovery phase, and the plaintiff can demand certain documents be turned over as part of litigation. Your only recourse is to supply documents, or respond with an objection to the requested documents, at which point a discovery hearing may be set.

In any event, you need to file BK ASAP to avoid complications. Last thing you want is to be held in contempt of court.

[sisterfunkhaus]

If you are filing BK, they are SOL. even if they got a judgment against you--still SOL as soon as you file. I just went through this with Citibank. A judgment was entered against me Monday, the day I filed. They can't do a thing tight now b/c I am in a relief of stay. My attorney said it should be discharged with BK. I would imagine it will be the same with you if all goes smoothly.

[HHM]

If you are filing BK, they are SOL. even if they got a judgment against you--still SOL as soon as you file. I just went through this with Citibank. A judgment was entered against me Monday, the day I filed. They can't do a thing tight now b/c I am in a relief of stay. My attorney said it should be discharged with BK. I would imagine it will be the same with you if all goes smoothly.

That is true...even if they get a judgement against you, they are SOL in BK. But since you, apparently, responded to this lawsuit, you are now an active litigant. Unless you are prepared to litigate the case (or at least keep the wolves at bay), you need to get going with the filing. You can be held in contempt of court for not complying with discovery etc. In which case you could be sanctioned by the court...and those sanctions cannot be discharged.

[sisterfunkhaus]

That is true...even if they get a judgement against you, they are SOL in BK. But since you, apparently, responded to this lawsuit, you are now an active litigant. Unless you are prepared to litigate the case (or at least keep the wolves at bay), you need to get going with the filing. You can be held in contempt of court for not complying with discovery etc. In which case you could be sanctioned by the court...and those sanctions cannot be discharged.

You are right. In order to keep them at bay, you must actually file BK. The intent to file does nothing to stop the process happening now.

[HHM]

........

I know you don't like dealing in hypothetical, but... I have a question since I am soon to be on this road.

So I understand this right: If you accept service and respond to the summons and complaint then you must also respond to the interrogatories? You can not choose to ignore them and just let it lapse into a default judgment? You HAVE to respond?

You don't HAVE TO respond, but there are some risks to not responding depending on the aggressiveness of the plaintiff and the judge. What is likely to happen in the OP's case, if she does not respond to the discovery requests and does not attend the MSJ hearing, the court will simply grant the MSJ and enter judgment in favor of the plaintiff.

Now if you don't accept service, or let them serve you and you ignore it and just let them get a default judgment and then they came back to drag you into court after getting a judgment to examine your financial dealings in front of the judge.

Just so we are clear, it is not really up to you to "accept" service. All you can do is literally hide, and as you are already aware, they can do service by publication.

What happens if you avoid the service from the get go and say they do it by publication to obtain the default judgment (you can always get it vacated later in BK correct?)

Yes, UNLESS, there is some type of fraud claim, but those are rarely alleged in a consumer collection case.

So in the supplemental proceeding if they cant serve you with a subpoena then what happens? I guess at any point so long as the judgment is valid they can attempt to locate you and get you served? Does the case stay open indefinitely with the court?

I assume you are referring to the Judgment creditors exam, state rules may differ, but they don't have to personally serve the notice of the exam (it is not a subpoena), all they have to do is mail it.

I mean if you don't have really any assets and are jobless will a law firm go to all this expense just to get you into court and probe for something. I would think they would at least have an idea if your worth pursuing before expending money they may never get back. Especially if your a likely candidate for BK.

That is the $64K question, the fact is, these collection lawsuits are filed all the time. Judgments have value regadless of the immediate ability to collect (most people are not judgment proof forever).

So what is the better option if you cant file BK right away? Dodge them and let then just get default judgments or fight with them in hopes of delaying the inevitable?

That is a tough call. If you respond, then they now know where you are, without doubt. If you do not respond, then it is a crap shoot. Certainly, if you have no non-exempt assets and no job, or otherwise garnishable wages, I really don't see that you gain anything by responding.

I almost looks like the head in the sand method and then file BK later would work OK if you can dodge the subpoena for your financial dealings, but then again if you really don't have anything... huh..I am lost...<shrug>

[treehugger1]

I would check your state laws. In terms of a "debtor's exam," it appears that where I live an attorney can ask you to provide financial information. You can ignore the request, and then the attorney can have you served and force you to show up before the court/judge. Now, if you ignore the court-ordered summons, you are in deep doo-doo.

I do wonder why one would have to respond to a letter that references no case number. Did I miss something in the previous posts? Could one ignore the request until after it is filed with the court?

A little research might be in order.

[HHM]

Discovery is designed as an "informal" process. Generally, discovery requests are NOT filed with the court; one lawyer simply sends the requests to the other. In fact, many courts do not want discovery requests filed.

Many large counties have a "discovery commissioner" who hears disputes about discovery issues, so it is rare that any discovery issue sees the inside of a court room.

I got the impression that the OP knows that there is an active case and that this attorney represents the plaintiff, so the lack of a case number on the request is hardly fatal.

[WhatMoney]

I would check your state laws. In terms of a "debtor's exam," it appears that where I live an attorney can ask you to provide financial information. You can ignore the request, and then the attorney can have you served and force you to show up before the court/judge.

Treehugger, if this is part of post judgement execution, I believe you must respond to written interrogatories or be held in contempt of court. Also the written interogatory may be served by any of the usual methods, including mail with a return receipt. From Oregon Revised Statues:

18.270 Written interrogatories

An asset search by the creditor before a judgement through a Discovery process is different in that you can object to answering the questions for a variety of reasons (see below). But then you may need to show for a Discovery hearing. So Discovery can be a headache, and force an active defense against unreasonable requests. Creditors often dispute your Discovery requests, or keep asking for extensions until one of the parties gives up, so I guess it depends on how long you want to play the litigation game.

OR RCP Rule 36(C):

C Court order limiting extent of disclosure. Upon motion by a party or by the person from whom discovery is sought, and for good cause shown, the court in which the action is pending may make any order which justice requires to protect a party or person from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense, including one or more of the following: (1) that the discovery not be had; (2) that the discovery may be had only on specified terms and conditions, including a designation of the time or place; (3) that the discovery may be had only by a method of discovery other than that selected by the party seeking discovery; (4) that certain matters not be inquired into, or that the scope of the discovery be limited to certain matters; (5) that discovery be conducted with no one present except persons designated by the court; (6) that a deposition after being sealed be opened only by order of the court; (7) that a trade secret or other confidential research, development, or commercial information not be disclosed or be disclosed only in a designated way; (8) that the parties simultaneously file specified documents or information enclosed in sealed envelopes to be opened as directed by the court; or (9) that to prevent hardship the party requesting discovery pay to the other party reasonable expenses incurred in attending the deposition or otherwise responding to the request for discovery.

[treehugger1]

Thanks for the clarification. If one does not reply under "discovery," or even defend against the suit, then there is a certainty of a judgment. Is it against the law to not respond to discovery?

Are "debtor exams" generally conducted after a judgment has been entered?

[HHM]

Thanks for the clarification. If one does not reply under "discovery," or even defend against the suit, then there is a certainty of a judgment. Is it against the law to not respond to discovery?

Are "debtor exams" generally conducted after a judgment has been entered?

It's not against the law, per se, to not respond, but if you keep the active litigation alive and don't respond, you could be sanctioned by the court.

Yes, "debtor exams" are exclusively post judgment. However, I suppose an aggressive creditor could schedule a deposition as part of the discovery process and ask the same questions (but depositions are rare in consume debt litigation because of the cost).

[Flamingo]

I got a letter today from Javitch, Block, and Rathbone stating that it is a "request for production of documents." The letter to be filed with the court is missing the case # as well as the court signature, etc,

It's asking for my address, telephone number SS# etc,

Also asks for my employer and their phone # as well as my salary.

In addition, asks for bank account numbers and most recent tax return.

The instructions are really unclear, but I do understand from it that I have 28 days to get the information back which would make it the end of May.

I know that they have a motion for summary judgement, I am sure if they don't actually have the judgement it's only a matter of time.

Met with my attorney and my BK 7 is/was to be filed today, latest Monday.

Of course, I will forward this letter to my attorney ASAP, but do I need to worry about them freezing my bank accounts in the next few days/weeks or will the BK 7 stop this? Or is there more to this process after this letter and they're trying to find assets and $$?

I know that I need to make sure I get a copy of my BK filing to the court that this this particular suit has been filed in. But wasn't sure if I needed to be concerned and plan on making other arrangements for the next few weeks to pay my bills.


thanks for any help you all can give me!

I have not read all the resonses to your posting. If the letter is missing a case number, did it say what court the Request for Production was filed in? Requests for Production, Interrogatories, the responding Answer and other Motions are not just letters sent to/from folks to ask for payment, they are actual court filed documentation with a case number xxxx vs. xxxx. I would not provide any information to them in response to that letter - simply turn it over to your attorney. He/she will take care of everything.

[HHM]

I have not read all the resonses to your posting. If the letter is missing a case number, did it say what court the Request for Production was filed in? Requests for Production, Interrogatories, the responding Answer and other Motions are not just letters sent to/from folks to ask for payment, they are actual court filed documentation with a case number xxxx vs. xxxx. I would not provide any information to them in response to that letter - simply turn it over to your attorney. He/she will take care of everything.

You probably should have read the other posts. In one sense, they are not randomn letters, but in most courts, discovery requests ARE NOT filed with the court.

[WhatMoney]

Some good info here for those of us delaying BK and worried about getting sued.

Treehugger, as HHM says, discovery starts out informal between the parties. If you refuse to answer the discovery request, the other party can file a motion to compel (motion for order compelling discovery) with the court. That requires you to answer the discovery or provide a defense why you are refusing to answer. And if you refuse and the court disagrees, they can award sanctions. But this assumes the other party is aggressive enough to keep pushing it.

We have a collection attorney in our state who likes to file suit and then send the debtor one of these "pre-discovery" questionaires. Once he gets all your bank account and asset details, he goes for a default or summary judgement - and knows just where to go to get your assets. All without any post-judgement exam. Or the debtor gets so scared that they negotiate and pay up before any court hearing. This guy is up before the State Bar for this behaviour. He has agreed to add the words "optional" to his sneaky pre-judgement asset questionaire.