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Collection Attorney Crazyiness

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    Collection Attorney Crazyiness

    I won't use any business names in this, but I can assure you it is happening right now.

    My wife and I both find ourselves disabled and have been for the last 4 years now. We each had a separate VISA account with a major department store name on it. When we coincidentally became disabled at almost the same time, our income took a big hit, to the point that our only income has been Social Security Disability. We have consulted with bankruptcy lawyers and have retained one, but have not been in much of a hurry, as the SSDI is not attachable and we don't have any other assets, other than one car. There have been a couple of judgements (creditors) and we will likely still file, just to get rid of those.

    I am posting because this one creditor sued both of us. However, only I was "sort of" served a summons. What I mean is that a legal service company mailed, by regular postage, a copy of the summons to me. No process server ever served me, nor did I receive a summons by certified or registered mail, or by any means in which I would have to sign for it. They never sent anything to my wife at all.

    Then, they got a judgement against my wife, using the so-called service of me as the summons for that judgement. It was a "judgement by FAX" process, in which everything is done via FAX machine and the judgement is a summary judgement that they got a couple of months before a scheduled "settlement conference" that was part of the copy of the summons that "I" had received in the mail.

    Then, they apparently attempted to do the same process against me, trying to use the same summons, but they made a typographical error on the case number. However, there happened to be another collections case in the local superior court with the incorrect case number they had mis-typed on my complaint and the defendant in that case suddenly discovered that he was being sued by the bank that was trying to sue me (by mistake, he just knew he did not have an account with the bank that was after me), so he filed an answer. When he showed up before a judge, the case was dismissed. Nothing was ever refiled, so as of now, there is no lawsuit or judgment against me.

    Now, the attorney who messed all of this up is sending me copies of new filings for interest, plus a writ of execution to attach an account at a bank where I have never had an account. None of these have a recorders stamp on them, so they have not been officially filed with the county recorder. All for a judgment that does not exist.

    I periodically look up my name in the case files of the local court and there are no judgements against me. Sometimes I want to contact the plaintiff attorney to tell them how badly they screwed up, but I think I should leave well enough alone at this point????

    #2
    I have never heard of "judgment by fax".

    You looked up your names in the local court files and found nothing?

    My guess is that there are no judgments against you at this point, and it is all a bunch of scare tactics and bluffing and outright lies by the debt collector to try to scare you into paying them.

    You are right about your social security benefits being safe from wage garnishment. But be careful to not mix these funds with anything else, and please take some time and read the stickies above about EXEMPT FUNDS, as well as the ones about lawsuits, garnishments, etc. There is a huge amount of useful information for you in those threads.

    Make sure you read all 3 pages of this thread because I personally learned a lot as the thread progressed over weeks and weeks of comments...





    And here are some other ones you may find useful...







    Last edited by GoingDown; 01-07-2012, 08:54 AM.
    The world's simplest C & D Letter:
    "I demand that you cease and desist from any communication with me."
    Notice that I never actually mention or acknowledge the debt in my letter.

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      #3
      All the lawyers I spoke with assured me that I am "judgement proof", since my sole source of income is SSDI and it can't be garnished. It is direct deposited onto it's own prepaid VISA card and not mixed, ever, with any other funds. There is never any question about the source of the balance on that card.

      I read the term "judgement by FAX" in a magazine somewhere. If a defendant does not answer a summons within the prescribed time (usually 30 days), the plaintiff can ask the court for a summary judgement without going to court (at least in some jurisdictions). Some courts allow all of this to transpire via the FAX machine, thus "judgement by FAX". It would be to the plaintiff's advantage to have the defendant to overlook or not realize that the summons was valid, or even a summons, if they were in the business of getting judgements like this. That was the subject of the article I was reading. I apologize for not remembering the magazine or the author.
      Last edited by warren49; 01-07-2012, 10:04 AM. Reason: typo

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