what are the chances

[crnbread73]

my hubby was sued back in april/may we answered and are waiting at this point still nothing but they filed in wrong jurisdiction and we are getting ready the dismissal request ready to send to court but since then my husband has lost his job along with me so we have no income. my unemployment is up and hubby still isn't getting any what are the chances of getting them to settle or do something considering the situation. we are not homeowners or anything we have no assets no savings. no jobs. it is cap 1 and I know that they are difficult but with things the way they are and the debt being under $1000 what do you think the possibility is??? Honestly what can they do. Neither of us work and at this point we are planning on moving in with parents because we have no income.

[LUEser]

Filed in the wrong jurisdiction, go ahead and motion to dismiss.

(Unless by answering you granted personal jurisdiction, not really sure how that works).

With litigation costs, and for a 1000, even Crap One should have better sense than to waste 10k in legal expense just to collect a 1000 debt.

[Andy Simmons]

If they sued you in the wrong county, then you have a potential Fair Debt Collection Practices Act violation that you could raise in a counterclaim against them.

The statutory damages of $1,000 should eat up the $1,000 they are suing you for.

I have settled only one credit card case in which my client paid anything, and that was with CapOne, and it also involved them filing suit in the wrong county, for which I countersued them. I found them to be pretty reasonable in negotiating. They did take into account my client's financial hardship, plus the counterclaim. I got what I thought was a very favorable result.

I always worry about pro se defendants when they try to negotiate with these people. There are many pitfalls and traps. But, yes, they will negotiate. They'd be unreasonable not to. Just beware they may also try to trick you.

I think you are a bit confused, though. You said they would be wasting $10,000 in attorney's fees to collect a $1,000 debt. First, they probably won't spend anything near that. They do this on the cheap, and while their lawyers may not be the cream of the crop, they are better at this than most of you non-lawyers. Don't kid yourselves. Anyhow, if they win, they get their attorney's fees included in the judgment. I suppose what you mean to say is that they will never be able to collect from you because you have no assets. If that is the case, then you are "judgment proof."

Be sure and use the term "judgment proof" when you negotiate with them. They'll know what it means. But be careful not to divulge the details of your financial information. They may fish for that info by demanding that you prove you are judgment proof. Any info you give them, they will attempt to use to collect on you.

[crnbread73]

i guess they are looking at it like when they sued my hubby was working along with me. We had a decent income and tried to settle but they said no that we could sign a stip and pay everything with fees came out to around $1500. Now that we are in this situation we have nothing. We don't even have savings. So as far as saying judgment proof we are. Not homeowners. We do have one vehicle but it isn't worth enough to sell and can't get loan against it because we have no income. Right now we are not paying anything on anything. My mother is supporting us. so i am not afraid of them trying to get something because we don't have anything. They have just played hardball until now. If I can get together what is needed to file suit then I may file the counterclaim because I googled the town we were living in when we were served and clearly states the proper county and they filed in a county that is at least an hour from us so it made no sense. They also told me not to answer the suit just make arrangements so that they would not have to charge more court costs. Nice attorney. But we will see. Thank you.

[swirlgirl]

Technically, you are not judgment proof. If they get a judgment, they can collect on it for the enitre SOL, which in most states is 10 years. So, while you aren't working now, they can just wait until you get a new job or open a new bank account. Then, they can try to garnish.