Sued by Pressler & Pressler.. please help im confused

[divinemadness]

Hello all,

As many of u know ive been helping family and friends with there credit thanks to CIC. well my mother wanted me to help her, she has 2 old chargeoffs and some collections as baddies.

anyway i followed the primer on credit repair on this site to start. this is exactly what i did with her info:

1. i went to annual credit report and got all 3 of her reports.

2. i disputed all of the negative TL's in her reports.

so im only on step 2 out of the primer for her repair. and about 30% of the baddies were deleted. BUT heres where the problem now comes in:

All of a sudden, she gets served a cmrr letter from the mount holly court house here in nj. it says you are being sued and you have 30 days to respond to this letter. and its from pressler and presseler. but heres the thing - they are claiming its 2500.00 for emerge mastercard. heres where im confused :

according to her credit reports:

Midland credti mgmt inc

bought the emerge mastercard account from the creditor. and the last updated date is 11/2007. ive looked at her inqs and it seems they pull her credit every single month!

and now it says pressler and pressler has it? im very confused by that. pressler and pressler is NO WHERE on her reports.

also can they do this? just for her disputing it as not hers?? its been dormant for years and now they do that?????????

but heres the thing is she said this account is old from like 2001-2002 and yet this midland credit has been updating her cr's every single month with it.

and EX shows its emerge mastercard, EQ shows it a medical collection, and TU the mastercard.

now all 3 bureaus have that it will fall off the report 2009.

i see no date about first delinquency, but i do see:

date opened: 06/2005

reported since: 05/2003

date of status: 05/2003

date placed for collection: 06/2005

last reported: 11/2007

what can we do here? what should we do? i told her not to talk to anyone, call anyone, pick up the phone to anyone, her landlord signed the CMRR that came to the house. ???? he said he just scribbled on the green card and put the letter in her mailbox.

i dont know if this is important:

i pulled her credit 12/29/2007 for the first time. she hasnt looked at it or applied for anything in years. on EX theres a hard inq from pressler and pressler dated 11/30/2007.

did i just have bad timing pulling her report and thinking disputing as not hers caused this?...or this was already in the works? since they pulled it 11/30/07?

thankyou.. hopefully someone can help and give me an idea of what avenue to take because im so confused and shes upset thinking i caused this. .. thanks everyone..

[brokeinok]

Hello all,

As many of u know ive been helping family and friends with there credit thanks to CIC. well my mother wanted me to help her, she has 2 old chargeoffs and some collections as baddies.

anyway i followed the primer on credit repair on this site to start. this is exactly what i did with her info:

1. i went to annual credit report and got all 3 of her reports.

2. i disputed all of the negative TL's in her reports.

so im only on step 2 out of the primer for her repair. and about 30% of the baddies were deleted. BUT heres where the problem now comes in:

All of a sudden, she gets served a cmrr letter from the mount holly court house here in nj. it says you are being sued and you have 30 days to respond to this letter. and its from pressler and presseler. but heres the thing - they are claiming its 2500.00 for emerge mastercard. heres where im confused :

according to her credit reports:

Midland credti mgmt inc

bought the emerge mastercard account from the creditor. and the last updated date is 11/2007. ive looked at her inqs and it seems they pull her credit every single month!

CA's often do this, watching for activity on the report. I guess they have some stupid formula for when to pursue again. I would bet that your first round of disputes probably bumped her score and got their attention.

and now it says pressler and pressler has it? im very confused by that. pressler and pressler is NO WHERE on her reports.

Have you googled these people? I'm assuming it's a lawyer and they are probably representing Midland.

also can they do this? just for her disputing it as not hers?? its been dormant for years and now they do that?????????

They can sue whenever they feel like it, don't look at it as retaliation for the dispute, see what I wrote above.

but heres the thing is she said this account is old from like 2001-2002 and yet this midland credit has been updating her cr's every single month with it.

well within their rights if they are reporting accurate info.

and EX shows its emerge mastercard, EQ shows it a medical collection, and TU the mastercard.

now all 3 bureaus have that it will fall off the report 2009.

i see no date about first delinquency, but i do see:

date opened: 06/2005

reported since: 05/2003

date of status: 05/2003

date placed for collection: 06/2005

last reported: 11/2007

you will need to call all three of the CRA's and ask for the DOFD. They have it, just don't always have it on the report.

what can we do here? what should we do? i told her not to talk to anyone, call anyone, pick up the phone to anyone, her landlord signed the CMRR that came to the house. ???? he said he just scribbled on the green card and put the letter in her mailbox.

i dont know if this is important:

i pulled her credit 12/29/2007 for the first time. she hasnt looked at it or applied for anything in years. on EX theres a hard inq from pressler and pressler dated 11/30/2007.

did i just have bad timing pulling her report and thinking disputing as not hers caused this?...or this was already in the works? since they pulled it 11/30/07?

thankyou.. hopefully someone can help and give me an idea of what avenue to take because im so confused and shes upset thinking i caused this. .. thanks everyone..

you didn't cause it, the bump in her score probably got their attention... breathe... it'll be okay!

First things first. Go to the top of the lawyer forum in the stickies and find the one that says "questions to answer when posting in this forum". Answer those and then we'll see what is what and what you need to do.

[divinemadness]

First things first. Go to the top of the lawyer forum in the stickies and find the one that says "questions to answer when posting in this forum". Answer those and then we'll see what is what and what you need to do.

Thankyou, i will get those answers. im confused because midland is the collection agency that bought the account from the original creditor -- so how can they sue? i thought only OC's could?

[brokeinok]

Nope, JDB's sue all the time.

[divinemadness]

1. Who is suing you? Pressler & Pressler

2. For how much? about 2500.00

3. Who is the original creditor? Providian, then name changed to Emerge Mastercard

4. How do you know you are being sued? letter came in her mail Cmrr

5. How were you served? Were you served? cmrr letter post office let landlord take it, he scriblled in the signature and put the letter in mailbox. never served in person. he said he will deny doin it if needed. (good friend of my moms)

6. What was your correspondence (if any) with the people suing you before you think you were being sued? none just disputed TL on cr's as not hers (this is my moms), no contact from them for YEARS

7. Where do you live? shes lives in Moorestown, NJ

8. When is the last time you paid on this account? 2001-2002ish

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). ? the letter says she has 30 days to respond

10. Have you disputed the debt with the credit bureaus (both the original creditor and the collection agency?) the OC doesnt show on the CR's only the CA, and yes idisputd it as not hers 12/30/2007

11. Did you request debt validation before the suit was filed? If not, don't bother doing this now. Nope, was planning too once i got the results from the CR's, the results came this week and the next day she was served. should i now?

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? i will update once i have it in my hands, she read it to me over the phone, i will be getting it tommorrow

13. What evidence did they send with the summons? An affadavit? A statement from the OC? Anything else they attached as exhibits? will update

14. What is the SOL on the debt? To find out: http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/statuteLimitations.shtml -- according to that - open ended NJ- 3 yrs.

[brokeinok]

First:

Google New Jersey and "Rules of Civil Procedure".... you are looking for information on how service of papers must be performed. There are a few states that allow mail service, but the majority require a process server.

Second:

On Tuesday, when the court is opened you need to call whichever is listed on the summons and determine that an action has actually been filed. CA's are notorious for sending things that look "official" as though they are from the court, when in fact nothing has been filed.

Third:

Once again, breathe!

Fourth:

What does the actual summons or paperwork state?

[flacorps]

Pressler are very sophisticated, and they actually wrote a lot of the collections law in NJ. You're going up against Darth Vader, blindfolded with one hand tied behind your back.

SOL may help you here, but don't count on it...

[VeVe]

I'm going to disagree here and say you DID cause them to come of the woodwork.

Why did you dispute something so old, ready to fall off in a year? By doing that you got their attention. You need to be careful in what you choose to dispute. If there's something there "sleeping" (like this account), doing nothing but aging, don't touch it, unless you know for 10000% sure that it's an error.

They may have forgotten about this account, it happens, but you reminded them of it and now they want their money.

[kevin3344]

Why did you dispute something so old, ready to fall off in a year? By doing that you got their attention. You need to be careful in what you choose to dispute.

Agreed. First things first, answer the lawsuit. When you respond do so to the COURT, not the CA. Your rules of civil procedure will probably require you to send the plaintiff a copy, but make sure you file your answer with the court.

Second, don't go by whats on your reports. Third, if you don't have a defense (namely SOL) the judge will simply ask "is the debt yours?" and if you answer anything other than "no" you'll lose, so if you don't know what you're doing here you might want to get an attorney.

Did they provide any evidence or affidavit with the summons?

[Elrey26]

Isn't the SOL an absolute defense? If this is an account that was about to fall off her credit next year, and the SOL in NJ is 3 years for open ended accts, this is a credit card acct, shouldn't it be past the SOL? If that's the case, your response should contain that information, and you should file a motion to dismiss. You can find the forms on the website of your local county clerk of courts website. Most have them so that you can fill in the info. If you need help just get the clerk to help you. If it isn't past the SOL you should answer the summons, and then try to negotiate a settlement out of court. As always try to include a PFD and no future reporting. Believe me, they are more willing to settle than you think. Legal fees add up fast, and they are likely looking for quick payment. Good luck. I will follow this thread and see how everything goes for you. One more thing: don't freak out about court and don't allow it to intimidate you. Breathe and read a bit, and see if you have a defense. You can do it...

[divinemadness]

http://www.cardratings.com/blog/2005/02/problems-with-emerge-credit-card.html

i was doing a search on emerge mastercard for this account and thats what i found, along with tons of other sites and BBB info about it being sold by providian. as my mom puts it- she was current on the account with providian and it was sold to emerge, where then emerge claimed that she had defaulted on it and blah blah owed all this extra money, when she didnt. and now im reading its happened to ALOT of people--in the end, she got tired of fighting with these people and said scrwe it after they wouldnt furnish her papers or evidence, ect,

anyway thank you for all the responses..

but im still confused that PRESSLER looked at her credit 1 month BEFORE i did anything or even looked at it. how long do they usually take to issue a summons and stuff??

do you think they even looked at her credit for the first time EVER in november 2007 because of the SOL????

and how do iknow the first date of deliquency for teh sol? would the be the 2003 one?

[LadynRed]

SOL in NJ is SIX years, not 3, and a credit card is not a 'open account' -- open-ended, yes, but not an 'open account' there IS a difference.

IF the account was last paid on in 2001, then it's pretty likely the SOL has expired, but you need to nail down that last payment date. What is the CHARGE-OFF date from the ORIGINAL CREDITOR ? Count back 6 months from that date and you'll be pretty darn close, if not spot-on for the last payment date.

Isn't the SOL an absolute defense?

It is an AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE, but it is by no means absolute. The burden falls on the defendent to PROVE IT.

[Elrey26]

And the ladyinred comes to the rescue!! Thanks for the clarification. Hopefully, armed with this info she can get this taken care of. I would like to remind her as well that she should definitely check with her local court to see if suit has actually been filed. I had a CA, pretending to be an attorney's office, call and tell me they'd filed suit at my local courthouse. They even gave me a case number. I went to the clerk of courts office and they'd filed nothing. It was an intimidation attempt, which afterwards I called them on and they disappeared...

[one who knows]

to divine madness, the letter your mother rcvd via cmrrr, was the enevlope from the burlington county courthouse or did it come from pressler. if it came from the court then your mother has 35 days to file answer to avoid an automatic default judgement. if it came directly from pressler then your mother was already sued and a jdgmnt was entered against her. did letter come with enclosure,it is called a information subpoena, and it was very very importnant that your mother respond to this within the 30 days period,otherwise pressler could reqst a civil warrant 4 arrest could be issued and your mother could be forced to appear in court to answer the ifs.

also understand that pressler is a law firm that has being doing collection work in new jersey for over 70 years.

if you decide try to sttle,once a jdgemnt has been entered,they will only accpt the balance in full.

also they won't care about any dispute that you may have have had with the credit reporting agency.

they will tell you once a jdgmnt has been entered any dispute is pointless.

what you can do is attmpt to sttle

if a jdgmnt has been entered,your mother can file a motion to vacate the jdgmnt.

[divinemadness]

ok i got the paperwork finally.

heres what it says:

2 letters came,

both exactly the same, 1 was sent certified mail with return reciept and the other just plain regular mail.

cmmr 01/16/08

plain mail 01/17/08

both from:

superior court of new jersey

burlington county special civil part

po box 6555

mt holly, nj 08060-6555

the contents of both letters is exactly the same 4 sheets of paper

1.

the superior courth of new jersey, law division, special civil part SUMMONS

you are being sued! if you want the court ot hear you side... 35 days to respond...and then it tells u ur 3 options answer the complaint, resolve the dispute, get a lawyer. signed by deputy of court special civil part..

2.

form a- special civil answer and its fill in the blanks

3.

special civil part summons and return of service-page 2

filled in with plaintiff info and demand amount and court address docket number says date served 01/15/2008

4.

recieved 1/14/2008 9:18:07 am

pressler and presser, llp

bal hbalh address

file #

then says

midlanding funding LLC plaintiff vs my moms name defendant

goes into saying pressler is the attorney for midland demands judgement ect

what should we do?

what we know:

1.) the account was paid to providian before being bought by emerge.

2.) she sent a money order to providian to pay it off

3.) the account is definitely out of the SOL of 6 years, but we will double check- who would we call to do that? prodividian? emerge? midland? pressler? credit bureaus?

providian sold account to emerge .. emerge sold account to midland... midland hired pressler to sue.

dates on last page of court paper says: 11/10/2003 to 01/07/2008 interest.

11/10/2003? she paid it off way before that she knows it and has the papers to prove it paidoff in 2001.

now all 3 credit reports show different things about midland. nothing about emerge or providian. since disputing them midland has been deleted from 2 of her reports automatically...

what should i do here? she makes less than 12 grand a year working part time and raising my younger brother whos a minor. she cant afford any legal fees or to lose anymoney or anything she has. the demanded amount is $2822.00. then she gets a letter in the mail from midland saying she owes 3705.00.

[flacorps]

Special Civil Part should cause grave concern.

Creditors suing in special civil part have some additional remedies and enforcement options and what-have-you over run of the mill cases.

I don't have the details right now. If I find them I'll let you know.

[flacorps]

In another place, this info was said to have been found on a blog:

However, I believe that the best reason for bringing an action in the Special Civil Part is because judgment execution procedures tend to be far more effective in the Special Civil Part than in the Law Division. This effectiveness is as a result of the fact that Officers of the Special Civil Part are compensated on a commission basis from the monies which they collect. They receive 10% of the first $5,000 collected and 5% of any amount collected in excess of $5,000. This creates a great incentive, since these commissions are a taxed cost and are paid by the debtor, resulting in Officers of the Special Civil Part being much more aggressive in their handling of the execution process. The Sheriffs' Officers, who are responsible for execution upon Law Division judgments and typically receive only a nominal fee for mileage when executing upon a debtor's assets, do not have the same monetary incentives. --

----------------------------------------------------------

[divinemadness]

but what can we do? LOL im so confused. it was paid before turned over to collections. she never knew about it in collections until we pulled her credit report and then this happened she thought it was just paid off and fine. so now they send her a letter and pressler they hired. when its all a mistake. where/who can i get additional info to prove to them that it was paid and its a mistake and dismiss the case??? we have 2 weeks or so to answer this.. thanks yall

[flacorps]

where/who can i get additional info to prove to them that it was paid and its a mistake and dismiss the case??? we have 2 weeks or so to answer this.. thanks yall

It would help if you could get your hands on a canceled check, or at least on a set of bank statements showing amounts coming through that correspond to amounts on old statements she still has. Her old bank may be able to come up with some of that ... for a fee of course ... if you prove your case, the other side contractually should pay what you put up in costs.

They have the burden of coming forward with evidence, and if you've got full discovery rules in the court where you are, they'll have to produce it to her prior to trial upon proper request, or you can move for summary judgment.

You answer, you say no, you propound rogs, an rtp, then RFAs, then move for SJ.

[one who knows]

to divine madness, while i understand your confusion about whether the debt was prev pif,you must understand how pressler works,before your mother rcvd this summons,she would have rcvd a notice from them,advising her that they rep midland and showed the balance that she owed. this is what pressler considers their fair debt notice. at that time she would have 30 days to contact pressler and advise them that she believed that she had prev paid this debt in full. pressler would ask her to provide proof in the form of a cancelled check,money order and most important a lttr from the orignal creditor saying the bal is zero.

if the debt was not disputed during this time,then your mother was automatically sued.

you should have your mother contact the county legal aid to have atty represent her,these attys deal with pressler everyday and should be able to work out a arrgmnt that your mother can afford and avoid an jdgmnt being entered against her.

[gator944]

Not so fast. We found out about a complaint Midland filed through their attorney here in Florida. After digging into it, I learned they first acquired the account October 2007. Their attorney filed the complaint on 12/5 and a summons was issued (but unserved) 12/6. We never received a letter or phone call about any of this. The first we found out about Midland was when she went to courthouse and got a copy of the complaint.

I have a couple threads posted here about it.

[divinemadness]

my mother did not get any letter from emerge, midland, or pressler about presser suing her. not one thing. the only letter she ever got from midland was in 2006. (sorry if i was confused before and said she got one lately, shes sent me all documents and she didnt get any letters from midland since 2006. ) and not one letter from pressler

[one who knows]

if your mother is sure she never rcvd a letter from pressler,prior to being sue,she can use this as a defense in an answer to the complaint,because before a collection atty can sue in the state of new jersey,the atty must send the debtor a fair debt notice. and if the fair debt notice was not returned by the post office or a third party advising them the addressee did not reside there,pressler considers this address as good for service of the compliant.

[divinemadness]

if your mother is sure she never rcvd a letter from pressler,prior to being sue,she can use this as a defense in an answer to the complaint,because before a collection atty can sue in the state of new jersey,the atty must send the debtor a fair debt notice. and if the fair debt notice was not returned by the post office or a third party advising them the addressee did not reside there,pressler considers this address as good for service of the compliant.

she is double checking through all the paperwork she has.

in the meantime i got the straight story about the account and this is it:

Account was providian visa, never missed a payment, made final payment to pay off balance PIF in 2000 and closed the account.

shortly after she gets a notice stating that the providian account was sold to emerge and would become an emerge mastercard and her interest rate was going up blah blah blah. so she called providian again to make sure they closed this account. they assured her that the account was closed and her balance was $0 and to call emerge to make sure and double check if she wanted to. she calls emerge and they state the same thing.

2006, she gets a letter from midland collection says emerge card was sold to them and is in default and she owes 3,000+ dollars. she calls them up and tells them she paid this off at providian and closed it and even made sure it closed with emerge. they dropped it after they called them and never said anything else to her or mailed anything.

dec. 2007 - checks her credit report for the first time and theres an inquiry from presslerr and pressler dated 11/30/07. ?? odd she thinks

jan 2008- get served court papers from pressler and pressler saying they are representing midland. for the balance owed on the account.

There is nothing owed on this account it was PIF and closed.

What must I have her get copies of to get this dismissed when we answer the complaint?

Should we track down:

1.) Checks she sent to providian from 2000?

2.) Statements from Providian?

3.) Should she call emerge?

and for some reason emerge nor providian shows up on her credit report!

what should we track down to prove it was PIF and anyother paper work.

cause it was PIF via check and closed in 2000. its 2008 - way outta SOL. and it was PIF .. where emerge/midland got confused is beyond us. as she states, she got her statement in the mail 2000, mailed a check in by the date due. it was cashed. she called providian to close it. they said it has been transfered to emerge. she asks u cashed my check, do they have that its paid in full to? and the lady said yes, it was sent over there paid in full, $0 balance, if you want to close it please call emerge. so she calls emerge an they try not to let her close the account, she told them to close this account its paid in full. they finally said ok and she got a letter from providian stating it was closed with $0 balance. thats it.

and shes 99% sure pressler nor midland sent her any papers about being sued. so that would be a violation there?

thanks for all the help, please give advice as to what we should track down, we need to submit answer to court within 2 weeks.

thankyou!!!!!!

[one who knows]

does your mother have lttrs from providian/emerge stating that the bal is zero

with the same acct number stated in the complaint filed by pressler. if she does then show this to pressler. in the mean time,have your mother file an answer with the court to protect her from having a deflt jdgmnt entered while waiting for pressler to respond.