"case management conference" and insufficient notice?

[IOIOIO]

I just received a one page "Notice of Case Management Conference" via regular U.S. mail, return address an in-state collector-attorney to whom I've sent cease and desists in the past. It says they represent Citibank, but provides no further information at all, no account number, no amounts, no way for me to request validation or verify whether or not this is for an account I've already requested validation for. The "Case Management Conference" is scheduled for a division in my county's superior court and is indicated as a "Limited Civil Case" in superior court. The other page is a Proof of Service in which the signer affirms that he mailed the envelope with proper postage. There's no notarization or way to prove it was delivered to me.

What on earth is a "case management conference"? Is this something worth ignoring while I just wait for 1) a proper dunning letter I can reply to with a cease and desist and request for validation or 2) a case summons with real case specifics I can reply to, and with real proof of service? When the real summons comes, I presume it will be for a case I deserve to lose, but I would just try to cause delays at that point. If there's no percentage in attending a "case management conference" I don't want to bother with it, particularly since it's pretty far away.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

A case management conference is where the court gets the parties together to ensure that cases don't just faint after filing for lack of action by the involved parties and that everyone has done everything they were supposed to do and are not just sitting on it. You may want to find out more about it -- especially what it means in your location -- before you blow it off. I don't know if failure to show would be an automatic win for the plaintiff, but if there's any chance of that you'll want to attend, especially if your objective is to delay judgement.

P.S. Apparently these things are scheduled automatically when the case is filed; you can actually show up for one and find out default judgements were entered against you months earlier. Is there any case number on this thing you can reference? A clerk's office you can call?

[IOIOIO]

I found this page:

http://www.alameda.courts.ca.gov/selfhelp/Civil/plaintiff%20and%20Defendant.html

I'm baffled because the notice I received does absolutely nothing to describe a case of any kind, and the only response in the courtroom would be to say the other party has never informed me of any claims. If the collector doesn't send me a copy of whatever claims he wants to make, I can easily show up and tell this to the judge. Then there's the issue of insufficient notice: there's no way the collector can demonstrate that they delivered a notice to me, only that they put it in the U.S. mail.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

I suspect you'll be getting a summons soon, if you haven't already. The proof of service thing is a non-starter, I'm afraid: if soomeone can demonstrate that they stuck it in the U.S. Mail (and it's not a document that requires a different sort of notice by law, such as a foreclosure notice) that is sufficient proof of delivery for the court under most circumstances. I just filed a Proof of Service by Mail myself yesterday for the pile of docs I sent to the trustee, and a neighbor checked the docs, sealed the envelope, and took it to the post office before signing the thing. Legally, that's usually all that is required; when it's not the law says so up front.

[IOIOIO]

No summons yet. The court date is a month from now. If they don't send me papers stating their specific claims for this case, I can't imagine what else there would be to do but to tell the judge that "there is no triable issue as to any material fact," ask for a summary dismissal, and just see where the chips fall. Would a collector be so negligent as to file a case that doesn't state a case?

[HHM]

Yep, you have more than likely been sued.

Usually a case management conference would not be scheduled unless you answered the complaint. If you did not answer the complaint...there is no need for the conference as the plaintiff can simply move for a default judgment...what aren't you telling us?

[IOIOIO]

I said in my first post I sent this collector cease and desists in the past (I recognized their distinctive name), and after checking my records I see I sent them one cease and desist letter seven months ago for three Citibank account numbers, certified return receipt. That's it. Nothing more until I received this case management conference notice today, which says they represent Citibank, but states no account number, or amount, or any material fact of any kind.

Are you guys implying I should have received a summons by now? I haven't, which makes me worry about this business about getting a third party to state they put something in the U.S. mail. I would think an actual summons ought to require proof of delivery, not just proof of mailing.

[HHM]

It may be some bogus thing...no one here can really say. If the later does not at least mention a "case number" (not the account number, but a court file number), it may be a bogus collection letter. But note, if you have been sued and the letter is a required notice, your cease and desist letters are meaningless.

If I were you, I would see if your county court has a web site that allows you to look-up cases online and search for your name. If you can't do that, go down to the court clerk's office and see if a case has been filed a against you.

As for service of process...it can get fairly unscrupulous. But, for certificate's of mailing, all they have to attest to is that they reasonably believe they have your last known address and that the document was put in the mail.

[IOIOIO]

Yes, there's a case number, and I found this page:

http://apps.alameda.courts.ca.gov/fortecgi/fortecgi.exe?ServiceName=DomainWebService&TemplateName=index.html

at Superior Court's web site that retrieves case information based on the case number. My case number returns "not found," but I can verify that my case number's format is correct.

If I can't retrieve any case info by the hearing date, I plan to show up and move for a summary judgment dismissal based on the plaintiff having provided no triable material facts and no service of process. If I lose that based on my inability to make courtroom legal arguments, I'll ask for a copy of the material facts and a continuance, and then start considering my second round of delay. I understand I'll eventually lose and my small wages will be garnished, but any easy delays I can get will be worth doing.

I'm thinking of carrying the Nolo Ch.7 book with me and dropping the fact that I qualify for local free legal assistance because my income is under 125% of the poverty line. My aim would be for the collector to see me as a case not worth pursuing because a) I won't just roll over and die legally, and 2) my estimate is that, due to the cap on garnishment, it would take three months of garnishment to recover each hour of their legal fees. I mean, I'm not even stupid enough to accept any deal for partial debt forgiveness from them because I couldn't even afford the taxes on the forgiven part of the debt.

[IOIOIO]

I am now able to retrieve the case info from superior court's web site, and it provides nothing more than the parties involved, the case type (civil), and the complaint type (collections). At this point, I've been provided exactly zero material facts relating to some cause of action to be addressed at this case management conference. My plan is to simply make a motion for dismissal, but since I've never done this and don't even know exactly at what point I'm supposed to move for summary judgment, I'd appreciate any procedural advice people can offer. I acknowledge that no advice given in this forum can substitute for a lawyer's legal opinion. Even if the case isn't dismissed, I'd at least like to delay the procedures as much as possible by making the collector meet their full legal responsibilities, and not look like a total doofus in the process.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

IOIOIO, is there any reason you can't move for summary judgement NOW? You don't have to wait for the case management hearing to do that, nor -- as far as I know -- do you have to wait for your adversary to do anything before filing motions of your own in your case.

If there are any law students in your area who would help you with the mechanics of this, that would be very cool, because it's not rocket science (as you know!) but then again, it is technical in ways that can trip you up.

The other thing I would suggest (and this may help you far more) is to find cases filed by this same creditor in your county and see how they came out. It may be worth a trip to the courthouse, unless you can do it online for free. But if you looked at case after case, you'd quickly see exactly what their strategy is. You're definitely going to have to look up your own, so that alone would be worth the trip to the courthouse if you can't see it online.

BTW, I had a friend who got summoned in December, went to a cattle call down at the courthouse and was one of only two people (out of some five hundred or so) to appear, the rest were automatically given default judgements. He was given a date for mediation, told the judge he'd be there, and yesterday he got a Notice of Voluntary Dismissal in the mail: the creditor dropped the whole thing. Keep in mind that my friend had no documentation, no real leg to stand on, the debt was clearly his, he was just fighting to either delay or gain leverage for a settlement. So don't give in just yet.

Good luck!!!

[IOIOIO]

I do want to show up instead of spending the time and money to file a motion ahead of time, and risk messing that anyway. I figure asking a judge to dismiss can't be a bad idea and I'd get the immediate feedback. I also want the collector to see I'm not a pushover case because I was thinking they'd see it's in their interest to quit on me and move on, the way you describe at the cattle call. In any case, I'm judgement proof, but if I can easily get the case dismissed it's worth the few extra dollars per month I'd save on wage garnishment.

I'll see what superior court's web site can tell me about this collector's m.o.. I do have potential free legal services available, but I didn't see a reason to take away from more needy legal situations before mine even alleges a triable fact.

[IOIOIO]

I appear in court at 2PM 1/14 only to find the case has been continued to 1/18. I received no notice of this and the clerk told me that was because the court didn't have my address, so they have me file an answer to the case which consists of nothing but my address and a request the court enter it into the system so I'll receive notices. I reappear 1/18 to find the collection attorney filed for a dismissal on 1/14 stating the reason "breach of contract." So I win, but what's going on here?

If the collector's strategy was to drop the case as soon as they got any resistance at all and not a default, that makes sense, but how would they have known I filed an answer at 2PM on 1/14 and been able to file for dismissal the same day? There is some ambiguity as to the date: the collector's signature is dated 1/14, but the date 1/15 is stamped everywhere else on the form where a court clerk did any processing. The 1/14 date wasn't a cattle call, so how did they even know in my case to file for dismissal before the first actual conference date of 1/18? There were about five other cases on 1/18, at least one of which was collections related (probably all, as far as I could tell), but there were no plaintiffs in the room, just defendants reporting for instructions. If 1/18 was a cattle call, then where was the collector to request all the default judgments? So if I wasn't part of a cattle call, I'm confused why they'd select me and not make me one of many that they take care of on the same day, and then not even bother with the case at all, apparently even before they knew I wasn't going to default. I guess it's possible that there's a coincidence of the collector just having other preferable business come up, so they dropped me (for now), but if anyone has another interpretation of these events, I'd be interested.