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1. Who is the named plaintiff in the suit? Cortez Investment Co, LLC 2. What is the name of the law firm handling the suit? (should be listed at the top of the complaint.) Hameroff Law Group, P.C. 3443 E Ft. Lowell Rd, Suite 101 Tucson, AZ 85716 3. How much are you being sued for? $9,680 4. Who is the original creditor? (if not the Plaintiff) Wells Fargo Bank 5. How do you know you are being sued? (You were served, right?) Served 6. How were you served? (Mail, In person, Notice on door) In person 7. Was the service legal as required by your state? Yes 8. What was your correspondence (if any) with the people suing you before you think you were being sued? One collection letter back in May (I ignored and chose to try and keep my head down, as I was nearing the SOL- obviously a bad choice, in retrospect) 9. What state and county do you live in? Maricopa County, AZ 10. When is the last time you paid on this account? (looking to establish if you are outside of the statute of limitations) November 2009 11. What is the SOL on the debt? This was something I wanted help on- as my last payment was before the SOL change from 3 to 6 years, which applies to my case? 12. What is the status of your case? Suit served? Motions filed? Suit served, still have a few days to file a response 13. Have you disputed the debt with the credit bureaus (both the original creditor and the collection agency?) No 14. Did you request debt validation before the suit was filed? No 15. How long do you have to respond to the suit? 3 days (spent most of my 20 days playing phone tag with various attorneys, all of which ended up being an exercise in futility) 16. What evidence did they send with the summons? An affidavit? Statements from the OC? Contract? List anything else they attached as exhibits. Nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. We need to know what the "charges" are. Please post what they are claiming. Did you receive an interrogatory (questionnaire) regarding the lawsuit? 1. Plaintiff is a corporation, Defendants are residents, debt was an event caused by the Defendants, this court is the proper venue for this case. 2. This court has jurisdiction over the matter, and that the Defendants, if married, were acting for community purposed and benefit (I wasn't married at the time, am now). 3. Wells Fargo Bank extended credit to the Defendants. 4. Defendants failed, refused, and/or neglected to make the payments owed. 5. Plaintiff has acquired or been assigned the debt. 6. Defendants owe the plaintiff $9,680 7. Plaintiff is entitled to interest on the balance (4.25%, starting from date of judgement) 8. Plaintiff has performed all acts required which entitles the Plaintiff the amounts contained in this complaint. 9. The above sums are justly and truly due and unpaid. 10. The Plaintiff or attorney has made demand, the Defendants have failed, refused, or neglected to pay. 11. Plaintiff is entitled to recover court costs and attorney's fees. 12. Defendant is notified that this communication is from a debt collector. WHEREFORE, Plaintiff prays and demands judgement against the Defendants, and each of them, as follows- A. the amount of $9,680 B. accrued interest in the amount of $0.00 C. accrued interest on the remaining balance of $9,680 at the rate of 4.25% from date of judgement D. reasonable attorney's fees E. Plaintiff's court costs F. interest at the legal rate on attorney fees and costs G. such other and further relief that the court deems just and proper. Alright, so basically discovering these forums last night has resulted in an information overload. I now understand why consumer debt lawyers here in AZ seem to prefer to settle rather than fight- it seems that I realistically should expect to lose my case (should I choose to fight it) in Justice Court, then once I appeal to the Superior Court it won't be an automatic loss, but will still largely depend on a great deal of luck. Besides the SOL clarification I mentioned above, I have some other questions- 1. I am financially in an OK place, not great enough that this won't hurt (a lot- but hey now that it's cooling off I can afford to wait on getting the car A/C fixed, etc.), but if we scrape and scrounge and borrow from family we can probably pay whatever ends up being negotiated in settlement (they called and left a voicemail a day or two after I was served, so they at least are minimally interested in avoiding the courtroom). I would almost prefer just to cut bait for my own sanity's sake (and also for the fact that I don't want to risk ruining my wife's stellar credit or put another dent in my own mostly-recovered score), but I worry that with only a few days left on my deadline they will agree to a settlement then hit me with the default judgement anyways. Is this something I should be on the lookout for, and how can I cover myself in this respect? 2. I no longer have my cardmember agreement (and haven't, since about the same time I stopped paying), anyone know where to find one? My credit report says the account was opened in January of 2006. 3. The main reason for my interest in the agreement is I am trying to figure out if arbitration would be a possible avenue to explore- Would they follow me into arbitration for ~10k? Does my cardmember agreement specify JAMS? If not, can I elect JAMS anyways, and if so, how? If I choose to go the arbitration route, should I mention it in my answer? Should I file an answer at all, or here in AZ does that waive my right to arbitration? If I elect arbitration, does that waive other rights I may have? In lieu of an answer, should I file a MTD instead? When do I file MTC arbitration? Whew, that was a lot! I know there are a ton of questions in here, but any help would be greatly appreciated.