Originally posted by despritfreya
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Ah, 2 issues here.
1st, you may be judgment proof. Federal Disability (SS/VA) is exempt. I do believe that a Federal pension money sitting in the bank (must be traceable) is also exempt but you need to look into that. If all is exempt and that is all you have, you are judgment proof and probably did not need a bk. Simply tossing in the towel and letting AMEX get a judgment may be fine as the judgment might not be worth the paper it is printed on.
2nd, I usually throw out an opening number of $3K asserting that we are doing nothing more than offering the initial cost of legal fees before a bunch of time is spent on discovery. If you cannot get the creditor to go away based on this, the settlement, at least in my experience, ends up at about 50 to 60% of the claim with payments over 3 years and no interest. The other factor is the attorney who represents the debtor. I think (but cannot verify this) the Firm I work for is a bit more successful in settling or simply making it go away as the institutional creditors know that we routinely handle 523 matters. They also know that if the matter doesn’t go away we will put up a very expensive fight, hauling the creditor in for depositions. The problem with litigating is that you win some and you lose some. It all depends upon the facts of each case and, as you proceed further into those facts through discovery the real picture comes out. Sometimes the creditor is barking up the wrong tree but other times the creditor has a smoking gun that you can’t defend.
Des
1st, you may be judgment proof. Federal Disability (SS/VA) is exempt. I do believe that a Federal pension money sitting in the bank (must be traceable) is also exempt but you need to look into that. If all is exempt and that is all you have, you are judgment proof and probably did not need a bk. Simply tossing in the towel and letting AMEX get a judgment may be fine as the judgment might not be worth the paper it is printed on.
2nd, I usually throw out an opening number of $3K asserting that we are doing nothing more than offering the initial cost of legal fees before a bunch of time is spent on discovery. If you cannot get the creditor to go away based on this, the settlement, at least in my experience, ends up at about 50 to 60% of the claim with payments over 3 years and no interest. The other factor is the attorney who represents the debtor. I think (but cannot verify this) the Firm I work for is a bit more successful in settling or simply making it go away as the institutional creditors know that we routinely handle 523 matters. They also know that if the matter doesn’t go away we will put up a very expensive fight, hauling the creditor in for depositions. The problem with litigating is that you win some and you lose some. It all depends upon the facts of each case and, as you proceed further into those facts through discovery the real picture comes out. Sometimes the creditor is barking up the wrong tree but other times the creditor has a smoking gun that you can’t defend.
Des
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