Being sued by collection company. Need some help.
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I’m being taken to court over a $4K debt. They offered me $2.7K lump sum settlement but I didn’t had the money, so I offered them to make payments but they didn’t respond to that offer.
Will the judge be willing to lower the amount so that I can keep payments? I want to clear up my mess but I need some consideration.
Thank you
Did you get the actual summons?
Collection agencies like to threaten people with legal actions regularly. In many cases, the treat is only a part of their scare tactics and is not real.
You can call them and ask for the full name of the firm’s attorney and his/her license number in the PA bar association. If the treat is real they must provide this information. If they fail to provide it means that it’s only a treat.
Next thing you want to know is whether the Statute of Limitation (S.O.L) has expired. Some collection agencies will continue to make collection attempts even after the SOL. They’re hoping you don’t know about the SOL and you’ll pay up if they threaten you enough. They may even file an actual lawsuit. In the event that they do, you can always use the SOL as an affirmative defense. Use this Complete list of Statute of Limitations by State to check the SOL for your state.
If they do file a lawsuit against you, you need to file a response to the summons within the time frame allowed. Otherwise, they may just ask for a summary judgment. You may try to dispute the amount owed, but you will need to have some real proof as to why you don’t owe that much.
Previous settlement offers make no difference judges. It is not likely that a judge will lower the amount of the debt unless you provide some real proof as to why you don’t owe that much.
It is normal that once the collection agency has filed a law suit, they won’t be willing to settle and will want the full balance. Any payment arrangement you make at this point will require you to sign a consent judgment.
See why-pay-off-debts.html and how-to-pay-off-debt.html for a more details.
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