AP filed

[despritfreya]

@sh9730,

Caught your post after Reynold responded. You are correct if we were talking about one of those "letters". Quite frankly it is surprising, at least to me, that an offer to settle was sent at this stage. This tells me the creditor is not sure it has a case and is using the "cost of litigation" to extort $. I can see this tactic working and will be interested to see what the future brings regarding such issues. Maybe we are seeing the beginning of a new trend.

Des.

[LadyInTheRed]

Reynold975, not only will your legal fees to fight the AP likely exceed the amount at issue, but if you lose, you could wind up having to pay the creditor's attorney fees too. Definitely not worth the gamble. Settle!

[HHM]

This is not an amount that will be cost effective to fight if you retain an attorney. Your legal fees will most likely exceed the amount in controversy. Offer them $1500.00 and settle for $2250.00.

tb43 - out of curiosity, and if you don't mind. . . how much $ was in controversy in your AP and did you recover attny fees?

Des.

Unfortunately, I concur. But as sh9730 points out, make sure the AP is actually filed.

If the AP is filed, start by offering $1000 ($1050 is 25%). Propose what ever payment terms that you can actually afford, but go no higher than $2,000. It really is not cost effective to defend, or at least, to hire an attorney to defend.

If the AP is NOT filed, and you feel your side is strong, do nothing. Or, if you want to see where they stand, offer $500 and see what happens.

[reynold975]

No, they did file an ap case. It is a legal form with a proceeding number. They had already sent the threat letter. Instead of ingnoring it, my attorney called them and told them we wasn't going to pay unless they filed an ap. So they filed. We told her to just ignore the letter and see what happens. But she didn't.

[sh9730]

Des,

It it typical for the creditor attorney to actually send notification of the filing AND a settlement together? I ask because maybe this letter was just one of your beloved "scare" letters that they INTEND to file the AP unless the OP settles...

OP, are you sure they actually FILED the AP, as in you were notified from the court.....they can get very clever with the wording in their letters. Makes a big difference in how you proceed. Based upon other similar threads Des (our pretty amazibnly helpful atty here on these forums) would say make sure they actually FILE the AP first. They may never do so, especially on 4K in debt over 4 months old....

Right Des?

[despritfreya]

This is not an amount that will be cost effective to fight if you retain an attorney. Your legal fees will most likely exceed the amount in controversy. Offer them $1500.00 and settle for $2250.00.

tb43 - out of curiosity, and if you don't mind. . . how much $ was in controversy in your AP and did you recover attny fees?

Des.

[tobee43]

some will say, try and settle. i would get another atty to do your ap...we did. and we won. our bk atty was excellent, but young and not really experienced with many ap's and we were told by that firm we had to pay the creditor. i knew that was not the case and so we had to hire someone else to handle the situation.

i know here in florida the courts are fairly firm about the 90 day period when it comes to ap's. in other words unless the charge was made within that 90 day period the creditor has no claim....unless they have proofs of intentional fraud. i would also check your state laws if your are filing under your's state's guidelines and if your filing federally, also check that as well. actually the 90 day rule is suppose to be everywhere, however, i have seem creditors that still attempt a fight.

it's hard to prove fraud. they would have to prove you purposely and knowly and with intent of not paying, committed fraud, in many courts that's difficult to prove.

[reynold975]

We received the Ap complaint/filing from the cc companies attorney. The total charges made between 4-6 months before filing are 4,200. They are offering $3,000. no interest $75.00per month. repayment plan. Any advice. Should we fight it, pay it. They are alleging that we had no means to pay it back at the time it was charged. But at that time we had expanded our business to meet the needs of a customer that was to double our income. Then it just never materialized/delay, delay, delay. We just moved into our new facility in September. It wasn't until Jan that we realized we was in trouble. We had emptied out our 401k to pay the business expansion cost. It may still happen some day, but who knows when. Should we send an ap response, make a lower offer to settle. I'm afraid our attorney isn't the brightest blub in the box. So I'm kinda of nervous even asking her advise.