Anonymous Posted February 3, 2003 Report Share Posted February 3, 2003 I owe first select corp a little over 2,000. I received a summons to go to court in Sept of 2001. I went to the court on the date and met with the lawyer. He wrote on the summons that I was to pay $60 a month starting 10/1/01 continued to Januay 14, 2002. I called the lawyer in January of 2002 and asked him how I should proceed and he said that the case would be continued in april and that i would receive a letter notifying me when to return to court. I never received a letter & I never got back to him. I want to resolve this matter but I don't want to pay the 2,000 bucks. Is there any way around this? Can I make him an offer to pay less than the 2,000? If so, how should I go about this? Call him? write him a debt settlement letter?All of this court stuff is scary to me. What should I do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admin Posted February 3, 2003 Report Share Posted February 3, 2003 You can definitely settle for less! All you need is some written agreement between and the other party that the settlement amount will be considered "paid in full" and you are good to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
equislee Posted February 4, 2003 Report Share Posted February 4, 2003 I would call the lawyer and ask about a settlement amount, I was scared of the whole lawyer/court thing too but was surpised at how easy they wanted to settle and offered me a pretty decent settlement right off the bat. I know its scary just to call one but you might be better off to call instead of letting it go to court again. Lee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted February 4, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2003 thanks for all the suggestions. I'm going to approach the JC and offer to settle the debt in exchange for him listing the judgment as dismissed. Hopefully this will work! Another question. When requesting a settlement amount what percentage of the debt do they usually accept? Is it generally 40-50% of the debt or more? Just want to get a figure in my head before approaching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincent Posted February 5, 2003 Report Share Posted February 5, 2003 What is the difference between a dismissed and vacted judgment?How does each on effect your credit?Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted February 5, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2003 well vince i'm not an expert on the subject but from what i've read you can get your judgment vacated if you did not get served in person or sign anything to receive your notice you can get the judgment thrown out of court. that means not paying anything....With me i went to court and made a few payments -- even though they didn't serve me correctly (i wish i knew what i know now back then) i can't vacate the judgment because i've basically acknowledged the summons/debt and made payments. So what i'm going to do is settle the debt with the JC in exchange for listing the judgment as dismissed. From what i've learned, he has all the power to do this by simply filling out a form to dismiss it. I was told not to accept "judgment satisfied" if at all possible because that is still a credit killer and may remain on your credit reports for 7 years from date satisfied and i don't want that!hope that answered your question Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincent Posted February 5, 2003 Report Share Posted February 5, 2003 you make the deal with the court or the person that got the judgment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted February 5, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2003 you make it with the person that has the judgment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadynRed Posted February 5, 2003 Report Share Posted February 5, 2003 Just an FYI - proving improper service to get a judgment vacated can be difficult in many states. I believe in NY you cannot even use improper service to vacate !Process can be served in many ways in most states, it does NOT have to be personal services. It can be certified mail, first class mail (adhering to restrictions), and it can even be by 'publication' - which means an ad in the newspaper - stupid, archaic, but legal.So, if the bozo's put an ad in the paper, you cannot say you haven't been served, because as far as the law is concerned, you have been ! This might have been fine in the days when the newspaper was nearly the sole source of information and almost everyone read it and if you didn't you knew somone who did. Today its a ridiculous way to serve someone. I've lived in this TN town for 3 years, I've NEVER taken the local paper, its a worthless rag to me, I get more local info from the local news on TV !! Newspapers may take a long time to go away, but I believe they will go the way of the dinosaur - and so should this type of law !!End of rant -- the point is, you need to check your State's statutes on the service of process before you make any assumptions about having been served and whether or not you can vacate using that argument. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincent Posted February 5, 2003 Report Share Posted February 5, 2003 So, A dismissed judgment will not show on credit report? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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