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Sued by Portfolio Recovery Associates, in FL


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1. Who is the named plaintiff in the suit?

Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC.

2. What is the name of the law firm handling the suit? (should be listed at the top of the complaint.)

"Racquel A. White ESQ. FBN 0392669" 

3. How much are you being sued for?

Less than $1,000

4. Who is the original creditor? (if not the Plaintiff)

HSBC (Credit Card portfolio was bought by Cap1 after that)

5. How do you know you are being sued? (You were served, right?)

Process Server

6. How were you served? (Mail, In person, Notice on door)

Notice on door

7. Was the service legal as required by your state?

I don't believe so, I called the process server as he left his contact info with someone I live with who refused to take any paperwork from him. I called him to serve me the papers however he just left them wedged in my door.  The link provided lists that he has to leave it with me or someone I live with.

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

I have never had a conversation with them on the phone that I know of.

9. What state and county do you live in?

Florida, St Lucie County

10. When is the last time you paid on this account? (looking to establish if you are outside of the statute of limitations)

I believe it was in 2013.

11. What is the SOL on the debt?

4 Years

12. What is the status of your case? Suit served? Motions filed? You can find this by a) calling the court or B) looking it up online (many states have this information posted - when you find the online court site, search by case number or your name).

The online website says "Case Filed - Pre Trial Conferences Set"

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

I have disputed the debt with Transunion previously stating I had no contract with Portfolio, to no avail.

14. Did you request debt validation before the suit was filed? Note: if you haven't sent a debt validation request, don't bother doing this now - it's too late.

Not from the OC or the JDB.

15. How long do you have to respond to the suit? (This should be in your paperwork). 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 did not receive a questionnaire. I believe I have to be present for the pre-trial conference in about a month.

Complaint:

1. This is an action for damages less than 5,000.

2. Defendant obtained and used a Citibank, N.A. / Best Buy revolving credit account ******#### (the account)

3. Plaintiff is the successor in interest of said account having purchased said account in good faith, for value, and in the ordinary course of business. (See Attached).

4. Defendant did make purchases and charged same to the Account, but after statements were provided to Defendant, Defendant failed to make the monthly payments due upon the account and failed to object to the balance then owing, resulting in an account stated in the sum of $###.## (Exhibit B )

5. Plaintiff has declared Defendant to be in default and demands payment of the balance due on the Account. Defendant has refused said demand.

6. Defendant is indebted to plaintiff in the sum of $###.##

7. All conditions precedent to this action have occurred.

8. Pursuant to Rule 2.516 Plaintiff designated the following e-mail addresses for the purpose of service of all documents required to be served pursuant to Rule 2.516 in this proceeding (Lists about 20 e-mails.)

16. What evidence did they send with the summons? An affidavit? Statements from the OC? Contract? List anything else they attached as exhibits.

Exhibit A : Affidavit for a custodian of records from portfolio recovery associates stating the debt is mine and is rightfully owed to them.

Exhibit B: Bill of Sale and Assignments, document is not specific just stating that the bank sells, assigns, conveys etc the debt to Portfolio Recovery Associates however does not have my name or account number in the document

Exhibit C: Statement from May 2014 with account balance listed

 

 

 

My debt is small however I really do not want to pay portfolio recovery associates. Is it worth taking the risk to fight it or should I just settle for a smaller amount with them? 

 

Thank you for any help!!

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@deere so this account would have allegedly been opened in 2010 or earlier if it's HSBC? If so and you have an old cardmember agreement from back then private arbitration would be something to consider if there's arbitration and a survivability clause in that agreement.

-I see Citi, Cap One and HSBC all named. HSBC then Cap One taking over the account sounds right. How does Citi come into play?

OR just fight them in court. They didn't send an assignment notification before filing the lawsuit? That's a Florida requirement (see old threads for statute). Portfolio also has a CFPB consent order against them requiring specific documentation you can push for in discovery.

@LawKitty could smack PRA around for you but I'm not sure what a $1,000 debt would cost to defend.

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@CCRP626

I believe Citigroup bought the portfolio from Cap1, I am going to look up the member agreement now and I never received an assignment notification but I've been through multiple addresses in the past year not sure where they would have sent it. Maybe private arbitration would be the way to go with such a small debt.

 

I'm gonna look into those options thank you for the advice!

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Make them show the chain of title connecting the sale of your account from each party to the next. The best they'll probably have is a reference to an exhibit where your account is supposedly named but they won't produce the exhibit.

If Citi is the last holder of the account they should have arbitration in the final agreement but there might be a small claims arbitration exclusion although the rest of the agreement will say any and all claims are game for arbitration even before you had an account, so it's a one sided ambiguous document as your defense.

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Can I file a motion for Arbitration at the Pre Trial Conference or does that have to be done down the line?

My understanding is the last time the card is billed is the credit card agreement that stands, I believe the one that was binding has an arbitration agreement with AAA. I'm assuming that such a small debt wouldn't be worth pursuing when its 200$ alone just to begin according to AAA's website.

I am in progress of reading more on Civil procedure so forgive me if there is an obvious answer.

 

Thank you

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5 minutes ago, deere said:

Can I file a motion for Arbitration at the Pre Trial Conference or does that have to be done down the line?

The earlier the better.

 

6 minutes ago, deere said:

My understanding is the last time the card is billed is the credit card agreement that stands, I believe the one that was binding has an arbitration agreement with AAA.

That agreement will be fine.

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Sorry for the delay, the debt is only 611$, I just read the updated agreement and like mentioned before it is small claims so I cannot go to arbitration. @LawKitty

They filed on 6/8/2016, Pre-Trial is July 18th.

I just read the document that the server submitted and the description he gave of the "person" who accepted my documents and "verbally" said it was me, was not in anyway close to my description. Not sure if that can help me in the manner because I did receive the documents in the end.

 

Thank you in advance for any help!

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2 hours ago, deere said:

it is small claims so I cannot go to arbitration.

is this due to the small claims fine print in the Citi agreement? It also says all claims elsewhere, so one sided ambiguous document drafted by them which should give you the weight of the argument. Go ahead and file the MTC if Arb is what you want to do and see what the Judge decides, then appeal if needed.

This card has also been held by Cap One and HSBC, so one of their agreements while the card was active if it has a survival clause for the arbitration could be used.

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