Retired Woman receives Summons

[sdc2027]

I am getting this information for an older friend of mine. She is retired and has no income, she lives with me but brings in nothing yet because she is not old enough to get SS and she has no money from pension, husband, etc.

1. Who is suing you?

Midland Credit Management

2. For how much?

$688.32

3. Who is the original creditor?

Fingerhut Credit advantage

4. How do you know you are being sued?

Man in plain clothes, unknown if Sheriff

5. How were you served? Were you served?

Served at home, all papers in an envelope, person who gave the summons asked her for her weight, height and eye color and then wrote it down.

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

Collection notices were sent and ignored.

7. Where do you live?

Colorado

8. When is the last time you paid on this account?

Unsure, She is thinking it is beyond 3 years - or more

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).

Nothing has been filed as of yet (summons was delivered 10/28) on 11/6

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

NO

11. Did you request debt validation before the suit was filed? If not, don't bother doing this now.

NO

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?

YES

Complaint

1. Venue is proper --- county, as the defendant is located in (same) county, Colorado --Which she is not, she is in a different county

2. The amount claimed herein does not exceed the jurisdiction of the court.

3. The amount claimed from ..., the defendant is 688.32, together with proper interest,costs and any other items allowable by the statue or specific agreement:attorney fees

4. such claim arises from the following event or transaction: failure to make payment on account with obtained by defendant

5. Upon information and belief of the plaintiff, the defendant, .... , is/are not in the military service of the United states

6. The plaintiff does not demand a trial by jury.

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

They included a form 400 (generic) from Midland funding that is signed and notarized - coming from a 'servicer of this account' - stating that midland was owed this amount as of 3-25-2006. This was dated 3-31-2006

14. What is the SOL on the debt?

6 years but she is still within that timeframe based on the last payment she made over 3 years ago

[Methuss]

You attack the chain of title as incomplete and the affidavit as hearsay. Search posts on how info about this. In all likelihood Midland doesn't have all the documents required under the Uniform Commercial Code to establish title to the debt.

[RSB]

#5. weight, height, and eye color?

Why do they need that information?

[Methuss]

#5. weight, height, and eye color?

Why do they need that information?

It is how process servers list the identity of the perosn they served. If the process server asked for that info about the persont hey were supposed to serve, and they got the info, you can bet they falsified some part of the service notice and claimed they handed it directly to the person named on the suit.

If you are not the person being served NEVER answer these questions about the person you are accepting the service for. You are torpedoing them.

[sdc2027]

Follow-up:

CA/lawyer has not set up a case # yet (now past 2weeks from summons) and has recently sent out an offer to settle, but with no amount . She is of the age that since it is her debt she should pay.

Because of this I want to write up a settlement letter and will go with 25% of the amount that Midland had (no extra fees) noted. I haven't pulled her credit reports yet to get the original but she says this sounds close. I'm thinking I will pull her credit reports anyway and take my time with this settlement, good idea?

I am fighting her on calling them and doing everything in writing, but she sees the lawyer names and gets nervous. Anything you can advise to help me calm her down?

[Denita]

Did you respond to the summons? If you do not respond, they will just get a default judgment. They may try for one anyway....

[sdc2027]

She had spoken with a lawyer and since she owes on the account he told her to not answer. Can she request they drop the case as part of the settlement?

[Denita]

If you don't answer they will get a default judgment. Which attorney did she speak to - the one on the summons????

[nascar]

She had spoken with a lawyer and since she owes on the account he told her to not answer. Can she request they drop the case as part of the settlement?

What settlement ... and why? She's retired and has no income. I agree with the attorney. Why put the lady through the bs of a court case when the plaintiff can't recover from her anyway.

[sdc2027]

She feels that since the bill is hers, she wants to pay it off, no matter. She doesn't want to fight against what is her responsibility.

Even though the summons was sent and date is on the summons, but there is no case # assigned yet. I keep calling each week... Is it possible they will not go through with the summons?