Being Sued, What Do I Do

[SomeDudeInVegas]

I know.. I know.. Search the forums.. I have.. Just wanted to get some updated opinions.

Long story short, stopped paying my bills a few years ago. An attorney in Las Vegas, NV (Westley Villanueva) is suing me. He filed the lawsuit on 7/14/2010. I had a Capital One credit card with a $1,000 balance. The lawsuit states he wants $1,500.00. I have it in cash, should I just pay him off? If I do pay him off, what happens to my credit report? Does the account come off or does he just drop the lawsuit?

I tried doing some research on the attorney, and it seems like he's a "robo-signer". The same day he filed my lawsuit, he filed thousands of other ones. I can see that some of the cases are "closed" and it says he dropped the case. There's a lot of negative talk about him online, and I don't want to send $1,500 to the wrong person. Should I hire a lawyer? If so, what kind?

I read online I should file a "Notice of Intent" and send the courts and the lawyer a copy. It says I intend to defend the case, and that I want proof that the debt is mine, and an itemized list of what they want from me, and the costs. (balance, interests, court fees, etc) But as always, I take everything I read online with a grain of salt, so I haven't mailed it yet.

Any advice?

[skippy1960]

Some,

You don't mention whether you were ever served a summons, or filed an answer to the lawsuit. If you are being sued and the filing date is July of last year, I wouldn't be suprised if they already have a judgement against you.

It could be they have yet to serve you the summons and this would make sense....

Usually, courts have a time frame from date of filing to when service needs to be made, once that deadline passes, the suit is dismissed by the courts for lack of prosecution. Given this if you haven't been served, and you just happen to be trolling the court records. I would not contact the plaintiff, may stir up trouble.

I would how ever make a call to the clerk of the court to check the status of the case to make sure you haven't recieved a default judgement....

Best of Luck

[SomeDudeInVegas]

Some,

You don't mention whether you were ever served a summons, or filed an answer to the lawsuit. If you are being sued and the filing date is July of last year, I wouldn't be suprised if they already have a judgement against you.

It could be they have yet to serve you the summons and this would make sense....

Usually, courts have a time frame from date of filing to when service needs to be made, once that deadline passes, the suit is dismissed by the courts for lack of prosecution. Given this if you haven't been served, and you just happen to be trolling the court records. I would not contact the plaintiff, may stir up trouble.

I would how ever make a call to the clerk of the court to check the status of the case to make sure you haven't recieved a default judgement....

Best of Luck

Sorry for lack of information. I don't believe I have been served. No one has given me anything, I just found the lawsuit online by searching my courts system for my name. On September 2010 it says there is Affidavit of Attempted Service.

A few days ago, the court says due to backlog they are giving him until July of this year (an extension) to serve me.

[fightemdontfold]

The lawyer is probably acting on behalf of a junk debt buyer. The fact that the guy filed thousands of cases the same day affirms that in my mind anyway. The people he represents probably don't have proper documentation to prove their claim. Capital One probably long ago sold your debt off, especially a balance so small.

Pay them if you want, but beware, the tactics of these people are unscrupulous. I can almost assure you he won't make any proactive attempts to help you clean up your credit report as a result of you paying it off. From what I have read in the past, it won't even guarantee that the debt will not be sold off and another scum sucker will be coming after you in 6 months or so, however paying it off in full might x that out. You need real good documentation proving that you paid it though, it isn't wise to turn bank info over to these people.

If you agree to any payment on it, that means you admit to the debt, unless the agreement espressly states that it is not an admission of the debt.

The "notice of intent" you mentioned is also known as a "notice of appearence". I filed this with my anwser, you need to file a actual anwser to deny the specific claim itself. The notice of appearence basically just affirms that you demand to be notified of all hearings and happenings regarding the case by mailing to your current address.

You can chose to wait for service or just go to the courthouse an anwser it. Be careful how long you wait, some states allow a case to go forward after a certain amount of time if service has not been executed. My state, KY, does not let cases go forward if service is not done, but others will let judgements go down. You could get it vacated due to improper service, but that takes legal manuevering you could avoid if you just anwser it.

With the balance being relatively low maybe you would prefer just ending it with a payment. It does take a measure of time and effort to fight the thing, to educate yourself on how to do so, but odds are if you put that forth you could easily beat it.

I'd say find out who the JDB is that the lawyer is representing first of all.

[skippy1960]

Fighter has offered really strong idea's- I would only add this.

The amount you are seeing riight now is based on the filing which is 9 months old you show up with money, that amount is going to jump by another $500 minimum.

Here are the Nevada rules of civil procedure, serving a summons is rule 4. You may want to review as it tells you the what when and why, of how the courts view process serving.

The only other thing I would do if you are going to contact them and pay is to seek out an attorney that may charge you a couple hundred bucks and have him draft you a settlement agreement that protects you after you pay them.

[MrPunch]

Fighter has offered really strong idea's- I would only add this.

The amount you are seeing riight now is based on the filing which is 9 months old you show up with money, that amount is going to jump by another $500 minimum.

Here are the Nevada rules of civil procedure, serving a summons is rule 4. You may want to review as it tells you the what when and why, of how the courts view process serving.

The only other thing I would do if you are going to contact them and pay is to seek out an attorney that may charge you a couple hundred bucks and have him draft you a settlement agreement that protects you after you pay them.

They can only charge you an interest that they can prove that you AGREED to pay. In most cases they can't prove it. If they try to charge you more, look up your state's usury laws. In my state the punishment in a case of usury is a complete void of any interest plus possible attorney sanctions. If I were you, I wouldn't answer the case till I get served, it's very likely it will be dismissed. $1000 is not that much for almost any JDB to go after, so stick it to them. After all they only paid penies, or could be a fraction of a penny for each dollar you owe. I had a case sitting in court for over 2 years and they couldn't find me to serve me, so the judge dismissed it. If you do answer it, I would deny the whole thing, the debt, the "fact" that they own the debt, the amount, the statute of limitations, etc. Unless they send you a "certified" letter, you can also deny that you have ever received any kind of communication from these morons. Period! Good luck!