American Express suit now owned by ARSI need help ASAP

[bookman68]

have been getting ready for SJ hearing 8/11 doing it pro se until we approached a lawyer the last few days- Being sued by "AMERICAN EXPRESS" IN MASSACHUSETTS for two business cards 75k - lawyer pointed out their is no such company (should have been American Express (bank, FSB) I should have challenged this issue in Discovery which is over - the debt had been charged off by American Express(amex) 11/08 - called Amex and they said they no longer handle the debt and to call ARSI(debt collector) for information . Asked ARSI and they said they "owned" the debt- took this info back to our lawyer and he said it is too late to bring this up as an issue - am totally confused why

this issue cannot be raised at anytime and should lead to a dismissal if we can get ARSI to admit to ownership on paper????

any ideas???

thanks

Edited July 29, 2010 by bookman68

[LUEser]

I'm guessing the attorney thinks that the plaintiff's standing as real party in interest hasn't been brought up in either the answer or the objection to summary judgment.

It may be possible to move for an continuance on the summary judgment motion to file your own competing motion for summary judgment based on the fact that the plaintiff isn't a real party in interest. But you'd better be damn sure you could prove it.

I don't know how long in advance you'd need to notice the other side of the continuance, though. Have you asked for one yet?

Or a real wrench could be thrown into things and you could possibly raise an interpleader action to make the real party in interest surface, though that may not do anything other than provoke ARSI to move for joinder in the case. If they're even trained enough to realize they can do that. If they did move for joinder, then you're essentially in the same place you are now only months out.

[amexdefense]

I know this thread hasn't been active for a while but I just wanted to ask Bookman how it went with his AMEX/ARSI case. I am 1 month away from SJ with Amex for a bus card account by same law firm. Interestingly, ARSI had the account before it went into litigation and I've been questioning if Plaintiff lawyer is really representing Amex as they claim to be. It is obviously a business account but they are suing me individually as user of the card with the same insufficient evidence of a bank statement and generic terms and conditions with no signature.

Bookman if you are still out there, how did the SJ go? I would think that Amex not being the interested party would be a game changer. It makes it a lot easier for FDCPA claims against a 3rd party collector, and no standing claim can be submitted late in the process if it is newly discovered information not presented in initial claim. Law firm can also be potentially sued with sanctions.