Collection question

[albacore44]

So its been 30 days since the MIL was served, and i am keeping an eye on the court records.Looks like my nephew filed an answer yesterday, and petitioned the court to waive the fee's to answer, but the court rejected his waiver request. so today my MIL receives a thick envelope from the attorney. Looks like interogitories. Lots of questions trying to get her to admit guilt to signing for the credit card,etc. wanted to know her employer,shes 85 for gods sake. anyway, I just told her to ignor them, shes certainly not going to admit guilt. If they want that info let them take it to the judge.

[GoingDown]

one of the reasons the Goldmans were not able to destroy OJ and get all his money after winning the civil case against him was he had so much of his money tied up in annuities

Good point! That makes sense.

[albacore44]

You might want to get the rep to put this in writing, just in case.

If they really believe they are exempt from seizure, they shouldn't mind puting that in writing.



But from what I know about debt collectors, they'll probably never even find the annuities unless someone tells them about them. Just stop all communication with them, and tell other family members to do the same thing. Loose lips sink ships.

Thanks.we had an interesting discussion regarding annnuities. She said one of the reasons the Goldmans were not able to destroy OJ and get all his money after winning the civil case against him was he had so much of his money tied up in annuities

[GoingDown]

Ok, so today we met with a rep from Bankers Life who has the annuties. The rep was adamant that these annuities were exempt from seizure. so we will ride this out, and see what the JDB does next

You might want to get the rep to put this in writing, just in case.

If they really believe they are exempt from seizure, they shouldn't mind puting that in writing.



But from what I know about debt collectors, they'll probably never even find the annuities unless someone tells them about them. Just stop all communication with them, and tell other family members to do the same thing. Loose lips sink ships.

[albacore44]

Ok, so today we met with a rep from Bankers Life who has the annuties. The rep was adamant that these annuities were exempt from seizure. so we will ride this out, and see what the JDB does next

[WanabeFree]

Albacore44
You just can't stay away from Trouble. LOL

[rta]

Thanks for the encouragement DYLAN150. I hope to reach a good conclusion, but nevertheless, I'm collection-proof.

Also, for the OP, who is also in California, there is a website for NACA called naca.net, in case the elderly MIL wants to defend against debt collection. These are attorneys who handle consumer rights issues, but I don't know what they charge.

Just my two bits. Good luck!

[rta]

My impression is that this lady received a summons, not a judgment. A summons is just the start of a lawsuit.

If it's a judgment, and she never knew that a lawsuit had been filed, then it's a case of improper service, for which there are remedies.

That's just my two bits on this.

[treehugger1]

rta,

You might note that the original poster already inferred a judgment has been obtained against the elderly woman. It is far past the lawsuit stage.

[DYLAN150]

rta, good for you! Nice to see you standing up for yourself! Please let us know how it turn's out.

[rta]

Just chiming in here. A JDB usually cannot provide all the necessary documentation for the debt that they buy, and the original creditor, having sold the debt for pennies on the dollar, will not be eager to provide paperwork. I'm currently defending a debt collection lawsuit by an OC and have been reading up and researching, and consulting free legal aid. You might want to fight the JDB instead of giving up without a fight.

The legal aid folks first told me that since I'm collection-proof, it doesn't matter if they get a judgment against me and I might as well let them, and then file a claim of exemption to defend against the judgment. But I refused, so here I am, doing my own defense without having gone to law school first. It's surprising what the options are for debtors.

Anyway, I have gotten a lot of information from creditinfocenter.com and from debtorboards.com. The free legal aid where I live also has provided me with consultation and feedback on my attempts at writing a motion to compel for a bill of particulars. Since I am 63, subsisting on social security, with nothing to lose and with some time to spare, I'm not letting them run over me with a bulldozer. The plaintiff may be an OC, but they can't seem to produce any evidence. Makes me wonder. And the legal aid lady thought they did sloppy work, too!

Anyway, I just thought I'd put in my two bits. Good luck!

[treehugger1]

Perhaps at this point wait-and-see is the best approach. Since the annuities are well, annuities, are these considered income for purposes of the 25% limit on wage garnishments?

Just thinking out loud.

If they find out about the annuities, I would not count on any "settlement." Then, what do I know? It is such a crap shoot.

[albacore44]

GoingDown: You bring up a good point. Find out someone's assets. Here's are just a few things I can think of.

Credit report
FaceBook ( picture of you on your new motorcycle or boat)
Debtor Exam
credit applications
County assessor's records
State DMV
Bankruptcy records (pacer)
Divorce Decree (normally everything is listed on this)

And she has nothing on that list. Goingdown has a point, unless she discloses them, they are likely not going to find them. and if she does, the judge makes the determination if they are the type of annuity that fits the exemption

[DYLAN150]

GoingDown: You bring up a good point. Find out someone's assets. Here's are just a few things I can think of.

Credit report
FaceBook ( picture of you on your new motorcycle or boat)
Debtor Exam
credit applications
County assessor's records
State DMV
Bankruptcy records (pacer)
Divorce Decree (normally everything is listed on this)

[GoingDown]

That does suck.

It shows me once again, that in most cases, your money is safer stuffed under a mattress than it is in any kind of account once someone files a lawsuit against you.

This is just me thinking outside the box here.

My guess is that the creditor has no idea about the annuities.

And will probably never figure it out.

If I were in this situation, I would cash out the annuities and keep it as cash. There would be no further paper trail for them to follow, in the very unlikely event that they actually did find out about the money and come looking for it.

If they called her in for a debtor's exam-- once again, very unlikely-- she's in her 80s and maybe she has some memory problems at this age? How could they argue against that?

If I had not already experienced the creditors' complete lack of knowledge about a deceased relative's assets firsthand, I wouldn't be saying this. They didn't have a clue about the various checking accounts, stock accounts, real estate, etc. that was in his name at the time of his death. They were relying on us to voluntarily round up all the assets for them, tell them about them, and hand them over to them. When we stopped cooperating with them and stopped communicating with them, they threw up in their hands in disgust and gave up. They aren't set up to deal with that.

Way too many people think that creditors have some crystal ball to find out what you have, where it is, and how to get it. They are clueless and in the dark most of the time. They rely on us to make it easy for them. They do a huge amount of bluffing.

But maybe in this case, $10,000 (or whatever it gets settled for) is not worth all the trouble involved. Make sure you get the settlement agreement in writing and that it says "SETTLED IN FULL" before you send them a cashier's check or money order to pay it.