Being Sued in NY

[nov07]

Hi,

I will try to be as succinct as possible with respect to the facts of my case.

I sent a demand for a Bill of Particulars to the law firm representing the debt collector. The debt collector inherited this debt via assignment from a previous debt collector. Here is a breakdown of the responses I received to some of the questions I posed in my demand:

1. The transfer rights to this debt was executed by assignment.

2. The debt collector claims that it mailed verification letters on several different occasions.

3. When I posed the question "Does there exist a verifiable, bona fide, original instrument between the debt collector and alleged debtor containing the alleged debtor's bona fide signature," the response was that "Discovery and investigation are on-going and continuing."

4. When I posed the question "Does evidence exist of verifiable external acts(s) verifiable he objective semblance of agreement between debt collector and alleged debtor," the response was "Objection. Request is vague and ambiguous. Without waiving said objection Plaintiff states that investigation and discovery are ongoing."

In an affidavit from the Records Custodian for the debt collector, the Records Custodian alleges that I made my last payment to the original creditor on August 23, 1999, which is the date prior to charge- off by the Original Creditor. On March 31, 2000, the Original Creditor charged off the unpaid balance as uncollectible. The Records Custodian claims that I made payments to the account after this date to the previous debt collector, with the last payment being made to the previous debt collector on October 8, 2002, which the current debt collector claims resetted the accrual date of calculation of the statute of limitations on the account. The current debt collector bought this debt on December 27, 2002. The current debt collector attached a copy of what they have labeled their monthly account balance for this debt, incorporating dates from the previous debt collector beginning on March 31, 2000.

I was thinking of sending an additional demand for a Bill of Particulars where I would ask the debt collector to:

1. State if they have copies of checks, money orders, cash receipts, etc., to sustain their claim that the last payment on the account was made to the previous debt collector on October 8, 2002. My thinking is that a copy of what they have labeled their monthly account balance for this debt is not sufficient in itself to prove that I made this payment(s). Is that correct?

2. Am I correct that the debt collector must provide a copy of the original contract with my signature, or at the minimum a copy of the account statements from the original creditor? If so, since this debt collector bought this debt from another debt collector who bought it from the original creditor, would they need to provide a signed contract with my signature, along with account statements from that debt collector as well? Is the credit card application considered the contract?

3. Ask them to state whether or not the original contract states the following "debtor agrees to be responsible for payment of this debt to creditor OR ITS ASSIGNS."

4. Ask them via what method they sent the verification letters i.e. regular mail, certified mail, etc. I would like to see some proof that they actually sent me the verification letters they claimed they did, but I suppose they can just claim that they sent it to my address. However, am I correct in stating that failure to dispute a debt within the 30 day time frame does not mean that I agree with the validity of the debt, that is, failure to request validation is not an admission that the debt is valid, nor does it preclude the debt collector from proving that the debt is valid.

Any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated. I am set to go to court in NY on this matter in late November 2007.

Thank you!

[zfire]

You might want to tepos this in the legal forum, where a legal type

will see and reply.

Z