Newbie Help - Summons Received

[mymyfico]

1. Who is suing you? Palidase

2. For how much?839.99

3. Who is the original creditor?HSBC

4. How do you know you are being sued? received a summons to collect

5. How were you served? Were you served?left om my door

6. What was your correspondence (if any) with the people suing you before you think you were being sued? sent DV few days after

7. Where do you live?new york

8. When is the last time you paid on this account?Never

9. What is the status of your case (if anything has been opened)? You can find this by a) calling the court or looking it up online (many states have this information posted daily).went to file an swer

10. Have you disputed the debt with the credit bureaus (both the original creditor and the collection agency?)yes

11. Did you request debt validation before the suit was filed? If not, don't bother doing this now.i requestded it via CRB websites, several times in the last 4 mths

12. Does your summons require a response? (Look hard!) If you don't get a questionnaire with your summons, you are still probably required to answer it in writing. If you don't respond to the lawsuit notice you will lose automatically. In 99% of the cases, they will require you to answer the summons, and each point they are claiming. We need to know what the "charges" are. Please post what they are claiming. Did you receive an interrogatory (questionnaire) regarding the lawsuit? no questionare, just to respond in 20 days

13. What evidence did they send with the summons? An affadavit? A statement from the OC? Anything else they attached as exhibits?nothing

14. What is the SOL on the debt? To find out:6 years in new york

I was told by the county clerk that i needed to serve Palisades, CMRRR or via server company, my 20 days willl be up on the 1/22/08 i was planning on overnighting it today, is that correct

also why did they give me back my verification form, the first part was notorized by the county clerk and i ws told that i neede to get the 2nd part notorized myself..very confused

Edit/Delete Message

[brokeinok]

I'm a little confused by your post. Go to the lawyer forum and look for the sticky that says "questions to answer" , then copy those into a post and answer the questions, would help understand the whole situation better.

[brokeinok]

Could a moderator move this post please? I think it needs to be in the lawyer forum for better answers to the OP

[mymyfico]

1. Who is suing you? Palidase

2. For how much?839.99

3. Who is the original creditor?HSBC

4. How do you know you are being sued? received a summons to collect

5. How were you served? Were you served?left om my door

6. What was your correspondence (if any) with the people suing you before you think you were being sued? sent DV few days after

7. Where do you live?new york

8. When is the last time you paid on this account?Never

9. What is the status of your case (if anything has been opened)? You can find this by a) calling the court or looking it up online (many states have this information posted daily).went to file an swer

10. Have you disputed the debt with the credit bureaus (both the original creditor and the collection agency?)yes

11. Did you request debt validation before the suit was filed? If not, don't bother doing this now.i requestded it via CRB websites, several times in the last 4 mths

12. Does your summons require a response? (Look hard!) If you don't get a questionnaire with your summons, you are still probably required to answer it in writing. If you don't respond to the lawsuit notice you will lose automatically. In 99% of the cases, they will require you to answer the summons, and each point they are claiming. We need to know what the "charges" are. Please post what they are claiming. Did you receive an interrogatory (questionnaire) regarding the lawsuit? no questionare, just to respond in 20 days

13. What evidence did they send with the summons? An affadavit? A statement from the OC? Anything else they attached as exhibits?nothing

14. What is the SOL on the debt? To find out:6 years in new york

I was told by the county clerk that i needed to serve Palisades, CMRRR or via server company, my 20 days willl be up on the 1/22/08 i was planning on overnighting it today, is that correct:?:

also why did they give me back my verification form, the first part was notorized by the county clerk and i ws told that i neede to get the 2nd part notorized myself..very confused:cry:

[jetscarbie]

I always advise anyone being sued by Palisades...contact an attorney. Especially if you don't know the correct way to answer papers they send. Palisades is underhanded and they will work fast (and sleazy) to get a default judgement against you.

[Debt Guy]

mymy

It is clear that you are lost in the process. Why did you wait so long to start working on this?

It has been suggested that you hire an attorney. Assuming you can afford one, that sure seems overkill for a $840 lawsuit. You will spend more than that in attorney fees. Plus, the attorney is going to want to be paid in advance -- probably $1000.

Even if you hire an attorney, what defense would you assert? SOL won't fly. You might be able to fight on the battlefield of discovery and forcing them to prove you owe the debt -- but it is even more attorney fees because you are dragging out the process with more motions, responses, hearings, blah, blah. And, in the end, there is no guarantee you will win -- your odds are about 50/50.

And, since you have messed around and used up all your response time, it would be a real hump to have an attorney by Monday.

You can try to file the answer yourself. But you've still got to figure out your defense.

Some courts have "fill-in-the-blank" forms you can use for your answer. Check your court's website or speak to the court clerk. If not, the clerk can show you a sample.

(NOTE: this is an awfully small debt -- are you sure you aren't in small claims court? Small claims generally does not require a filed answer but just attending on the set court date -- I don't know squat about NY but that is the way it works in most states -- reread your documents carefully and reconfirm with the court clerk)

I am going to give you some practical advice -- and I expect that about a dozen other people are going to give contradictory advice -- you choose.

My advice is that you call the lawyer for the plaintiff Monday morning and try to make a deal. It will never be cheaper than right now. If you wait until after court, blah , blah, it will cost more.

I don't mean my response to sound mean as I intend you no ill will. As John McCain would say, "it is just straight talk".

[brokeinok]

You said you never paid on this account?? NEVER? Is it you account?

[mymyfico]

Thanks all for the responses - this how it all started (thinking should have left it alone, was to fall off in 2010)

-Dont really know if I own acct, started my credit 15 yrs ago(was not responsible back then or wouldn't have to be on this site:-(

-Saw item in collections on CR 2 months ago

-left out very important info- OC says another debt collector owns debt , not Palisades (in process of DV;ing them, they are not on my CR)

-Started disputing online-BIG MISTAKE

-Came back verified by all 3 CRB, kept pushing the dispute button (how dumb am I?-#rule , NEVER dispute online!)

-Here comes summons 1/2/08 (on my door)

-Dv'd the same week to Palisades- no response from Palisades

-Week later, summons showed up via mail

-Called lawyers from NACA, no response for about 4 days, finally response, no one wanted case, one lawyer gave me a local referral line for Attorneys specializing in Collection /Credit law

-Showed up at the Cty Clerks office to answer summons, 1/17/08

(nasty bunch of people, had no patience for my questions)

-1/18/08-Went to notarize summons, to respond, found lawyer, who gave me i/2hr of consult for free- also to notorizer

-assisted me in filling out response, even put it in envelop for me.

-said he does not handle cases anymore , just shows up for other lawyers, but would charge me $150. to show up to court, but advises to mail response pronto and then go back to County Clerks office and give copy of answer, holiday Monday, will go Tuesday

-Mailed notarized answer directly to lawyers(was going to mail directly to Palisades, but lawyer said NO)

-Also mailed another copy of Dv letter and copy of CMRRR and letter sating by law I must get a copy of credit contract to Palisades again.

-Lawyers, says maybe you should settle, I felt like I had a case when I called OC and they told me another Debt collector supposedly has the acct

NOW WHAT????? - would love to hear back:confused:

Feel like a RETARD !!!

[Elrey26]

I'm not an expert but isn't it illegal to answer a request for DV with a summons?

[mymyfico]

Elrey26, not sure , waiting for the expert

my answer to the summons was -General Denial ( added that the debt is not mine and that i requested proof from Palisades)

[jetscarbie]

The reason I suggested an attorney....that $840 lawsuit is gonna end up being alot more than that if they win. I'm just speaking from my experience with palisades.

mymy...have you tried talking directly with HSBC?

[mymyfico]

The reason I suggested an attorney....that $840 lawsuit is gonna end up being alot more than that if they win. I'm just speaking from my experience with palisades.

mymy...have you tried talking directly with HSBC?

JetCarbie

called a few, no one was willing to take case.

also left several messages for atty that specialize in credit debt, called HSBC and they told me to call the debt collector that has the debt, which is not Palisades! do you think i should settle even though not sure debt is mine?

[Debt Guy]

OK.

You are saying you don't know if the debt is yours. If that is truly the case, you will need to conduct discovery to require the plaintiff to prove the debt.

As I said earlier, you are way in over your head dealing with the legal side of this. The fact that attorneys are not willing to take your case tells me that either they think it is a loser or they just don't want to mess with a small deal.

You are in court. Sending DVs is useless. You've got to deal with this in court.

If you cannot afford an attorney, you might be able to find one by calling the local United Way and ask if they have an agency that provides legal services to the poor. Or call the local law schools and ask if they have a legal clinic. Or call the local bar association and ask if the have pro bono (latin for free legal service) referrals.

If none of that works, your only choices are to either make this go away with whatever you can negotiate as a settlement -- or -- represent yourself in court. If you decide the latter, you need to get cracking on study. You should ask the clerk for a copy of the local rules of civil procedure and read it thoroughly. I suggest you buy a book on self-representation. Nolo.com sells some good ones.

The question was posed by another poster about the legality of answering a DV request with a summons. I get different answers on whether or not that is "legal". Personally, I think it is entirely legal. But, you might get a different answer from someone else. Regardless, it is civil and not criminal -- so you can't go to the cops. You'll have to file a new lawsuit or perhaps a cross-claim of some sort -- but there you are again back in the soup with legal stuff that is way over your head and I am concerned that you cannot climb out of the soup in time.

No one here can make the decision what to do for you. Listen to what people say. Decide what you think makes sense. Execute.

Good luck.

[mymyfico]

OK.

You are saying you don't know if the debt is yours. If that is truly the case, you will need to conduct discovery to require the plaintiff to prove the debt.

As I said earlier, you are way in over your head dealing with the legal side of this. The fact that attorneys are not willing to take your case tells me that either they think it is a loser or they just don't want to mess with a small deal.

You are in court. Sending DVs is useless. You've got to deal with this in court.

If you cannot afford an attorney, you might be able to find one by calling the local United Way and ask if they have an agency that provides legal services to the poor. Or call the local law schools and ask if they have a legal clinic. Or call the local bar association and ask if the have pro bono (latin for free legal service) referrals.

If none of that works, your only choices are to either make this go away with whatever you can negotiate as a settlement -- or -- represent yourself in court. If you decide the latter, you need to get cracking on study. You should ask the clerk for a copy of the local rules of civil procedure and read it thoroughly. I suggest you buy a book on self-representation. Nolo.com sells some good ones.

The question was posed by another poster about the legality of answering a DV request with a summons. I get different answers on whether or not that is "legal". Personally, I think it is entirely legal. But, you might get a different answer from someone else. Regardless, it is civil and not criminal -- so you can't go to the cops. You'll have to file a new lawsuit or perhaps a cross-claim of some sort -- but there you are again back in the soup with legal stuff that is way over your head and I am concerned that you cannot climb out of the soup in time.

No one here can make the decision what to do for you. Listen to what people say. Decide what you think makes sense. Execute.

Good luck.

DGUY,

the few Attorneys i called felt that they could take the case, BUT...it would end up costing me MORE than $1500.00 to settle, spent the last few days speaking with several attny, 2 even adviced me to settle with Wolfpoff & Abramson , i gave in and called and settled, the pressure was allot, (i guess this is what they want from the folks who cant afford to fight a $800 case for $1500 and not knowing if you will win) I was told that their computers would generate a settlement letter and i should have it in a few days.

the ordeal has left me DRAINED and most people on the board can relate to this feeling. One attorney even told me it is better to settle even if it is not mines, it would cost me $500 each time he comes to court with me. After reading the tactics of Wolfpoff &A, i am not so trusting of the attorneys i spoke to today. Feeling so much like loser, was very aggressive in the beginning and after most attorneys said it is better to settle i gave up.

Still called the civil court to see if i had a hearing, knowing how sneaky the CA and their Attorneys:cry: are.

[Debt Guy]

Well, I think one of my first comments was that it would be cheaper to settle than to fight.

Clearly this was stressful for you. But, it is over.

You want to get the agreement in writing. Read it over and make sure it says what you want it to say.

You want to make sure the suit is dismissed. Ask the creditor's attorney to send you a copy of the motion for dismissal and the final dismissal. It would be good to stay in touch with the court clerk's office until you know the case has been dismissed. If for some reason, they went ahead and had the judgment granted, it would be fixable but it would be a mess -- so if you think there is a court appearance date go ahead and show up just in case.

More questions?