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Received an Order for Service by Alternate Means via US mail (not certified) stating Cavalry SPV I,LLC filed a claim in District Court in the county in which I live in Maine. I have no copy of a complaint, only this letter that arrived in a envelope from the District Court. The name, phone number and address of their attorney (in Maine) is listed. The letter states I have 21 days to respond, but I'm not sure how to proceed without seeing the complaint. Advice on how to proceed?

Hi everyone! I have to preface this by saying that I've been reading these forums since the day I discovered them. Today I finally made a point to register and ask for some of this amazing advice for myself. I fear I'm not sure what to do next. Also being from Maine, I feel like there aren't many resources specifically for this state available to me since, well, not a lot happens here. Regardless of it being in Maine though, so much of the advice I've learned from here has been incredible. You guys are all great and I'm hoping to catch the attention and help I've seen other people receive. Anything would be greatly appreciated! So here goes... If I leave out any important info, I'll be checking this pretty regularly to reply. This is for we'll say a close friend. She's lost in all of it and I've been pretty excited to learn about this and find a way to help her out. But I know all of the details required. Being such a small area too I'm a bit nervous to post too much info as I feel it would be pretty easy to narrow things down. So if anyone recommends I should edit some info out, please let me know! 1. Who is the named plaintiff in the suit? Cavalry SPV I, LLC 2. What is the name of the law firm handling the suit? Schreiber/Cohen, LLC 3. How much are you being sued for? 18,xxx.xx 4. Who is the original creditor? Union Federal Savings Bank 5. How do you know you are being sued? Papers served to Co-Signer and defendant's address from 5 years ago. 6. How were you served? Co-Signer in person, at the door. Defendant was not until after answer was filed 7. Was the service legal as required by your state? I'm not sure. Some of the debt collection laws I've read said that they can't serve you by a sheriff? Which is how it was served. But to my knowledge that's a fairly common practice of serving someone papers. 8. What was your correspondence (if any) with the people suing you before you think you were being sued? None to the defendant. Though they called the co-signer relentlessly, at work, and accused the defendant (to the co-signer) of being a bad person, etc. 9. What state and county do you live in? Defendant: York County, Maine. Co-Signer: Cumberland County, Maine. Complaint filed in Penobscot County. 10. When is the last time you paid on this account? 2007. Though they're account records mention a partial payment made in 2013. 11. What is the SOL on the debt? 6 years 12. What is the status of your case? Suit served? Motions filed? I advised the defendant to send their answer promptly. We did research and found affirmative defenses. Unfortunately it was before I found this forum. So now I feel their answers could have been stronger. Didn't file a motion to dismiss in the answer. Also haven't filed a motion to strike the affidavit. Currently tied up in a motion to transfer to the proper county so we have no new case no. to do anything with. I'm worried we're running out of time. But does a motion to transfer start a new scheduling order? We never received any discovery from the plaintiff either. 13. Have you disputed the debt with the credit bureaus (both the original creditor and the collection agency?) No. If only I knew better then 14. Did you request debt validation before the suit was filed? No 15. How long do you have to respond to the suit? Did you receive an interrogatory (questionnaire) regarding the lawsuit? Currently waiting on new information regarding the motion to transfer. Haven't heard anything from the plaintiff since August but the court says the transfer was approved. Have not received any interrogatory. 16. What evidence did they send with the summons? An affidavit? Statements from the OC? Contract? Unfortunately, a lot. Although this may be the usual case as well. I feel a debt of this much is the holy grail for JDB, so they would pull out all the stops. Evidence: Affidavit of Claim from employee of Cavalry Portfolio Services (a company that performs collections services for Cavalry SPV). Stating they were an authorized employee to make the claim for the plaintiff. That they are familiar with the manner and method by which their company and the plaintiff create and maintain business records. That they acquired this account 'on or about' a certain date. The usual stuff I've seen other people see in their affidavits of claim. It states the name at the top, but the signature is completely illegible. It also says it was notarized a full year after the affiant claims the account was acquired. Note Disclosure Statement: I'm worried this is bad. It's a copy of the original loan agreement from UFSB. With the loan amount, interest rate, and final amount that would be repaid. As well as the terms and conditions, but those are listed on an empty application. Account Summary: This is on Cavalry letterhead. It states an account number, defendant and co-signer names, name of original creditor, the wrong address,total balance (which is higher than the amount being sued for), a principal balance (the amount being sued for), and the original loan amount (less than the amount being sued for). It claims the default date was in 2010. Acknowledgment of Transfer: There are a few of these. None of them say any specific account numbers or names. Just that multiple accounts were transferred to new companys. It appears to have changed hands from USFB, to it's subsidiary within 3 months of the original disbursement date. From there when USFB and it's subsidiary closed up shop, it transferred again, and then again to Cavalry. Again none of these have any specifics to the defendents account itself. PHEW! So I think I answered all those questions! So now I should explain the defendants answer. They denied the debt and claimed the plaintiff has no personal relationship with the original creditor, claiming hearsay on the evidence in the complaint. Also for other defenses they listed lack of personal jurisdiction, standing, statute of limitations, also the fact that USFB never had a license to distribute online loans in Maine from the office in Rhode Island. They didn't make it fancy like the ones I've seen. And didn't reserve the right to add more affirmative defenses later. So now I'm stuck and don't know where to research further! Like I said they moved to have it transferred and we were told there was nothing we could do until we a new docket no. The original court had ruled for discovery but then the clerk said we needed to wait for the motion to transfer. So does that give us another chance for discovery? Can we ask for that from the new judge? Is anyone still reading this? Sorry this is so unbelievably long winded. I didn't intend for it to be. I just wanted to be thorough and maybe catch the heavy hitters' attention on here! Thanks again everyone and keep posting the great advice!