Discover filed a complaint & I'm lost in law.

[grateful lady]

Am lost in law, but oh so thankful to have found this forum. I have been searching for near a month trying to figure out what to do,

none of it made any sense.  Then I found this oasis; whew I  there's a light at the end of the tunnel after all. 

I've read around the forum and found the questions needed for any insights (I have added questions of mine about areas of the papers)

so here we go.......

Who is the named plaintiff in the suit?Discover

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

3. How much are you being sued for?$6600.00

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

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

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

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

Process Service Requirements by State - Summons Complaint

8. What was your correspondence (if any) with the people suing you before you think you were being sued? none

9. What state and county do you live in? California Sn Juaquin

10. When is the last time you paid on this account? (looking to establish if you are outside of the statute of limitations) Not sure,   however their claim is "common counts" and that is 2 years

if my research is correct,

11. When did you open the account (looking to establish what card agreement may be applicable)? maybe 2008/09

12. What is the SOL on the debt? To find out:

Statute of Limitations on Debts

13. What is the status of your case? Suit served? Motions filed? You can find this by a) calling the court or looking it up online (many states have this information posted - when you find the online court site, search by case number or your name). yes Summons served.   ( I have been struggling trying to find information that made sense.  THEN I found this great forum, I'm feeling relieved and ready to put up a good fight.)

14. Have you disputed the debt with the credit bureaus (both the original creditor and the collection agency?) no

15. Did you request debt validation before the suit was filed? Note: if you haven't sent a debt validation request before being sued, it likely won't help create FDCPA violations, but could be useful to show the court that you dispute the debt ('account stated' vs. 'breach of contract') . no

16. 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?

three working days tops.  I have already freaked out.  I now stand with the clock ticking rather close the courts are open today and tomorrow till four.  I could push it till Monday. I read that time starts day after service; however, I am not certain if it was the 14 or 15

papers are

1) summons

2)notice of case assignment

3) civil case cover sheet; limited;  rule 3.740 collections (09); not complex

4)instruction 4 cover

3 pages) complaint contract 6600.00 + cost of suit post judgment & interest   #1 on the complaint.discover.  is this the first claim I need to answer?

First cause of action within 4 years checked plus both (1) on an open account for money and (2) an account was stated in writing between P and D  (then)  within 4 yrs  (it states the same as 1 and 2)

plus other; This C.O.A. relates to card account ending xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx yadda yadda yadda   (7 pgs total)

17. What evidence did they send with the summons? An affidavit? Statements from the OC? Contract? List anything else they attached as exhibits.no-thing at all (as a matter of fact I think that they did not give put all of the papers for the summons. It is in the rule that they were to add a blank assignment case pamphlet. Plus I didn't see a court date on here anywhere.

I read that the answer did not have to be filled out on one of their forms as long as it answered each of the complaints; is this true?

What other paperwork should I add to the answer, I am not sure where to go from here.

Thank you for taking my post into consideration, I will be posting updates and accepting "idea handouts" here till the end and beyond.. I have wanted to learn more about law; this makes ahellofa reason to start.

any feedback, ideas etc. will not be taken as legal advice. However they will be appreciated deeply. {=love and light =}

[Goody_Ouchless]

Discover will follow you to the ends of the Earth for 300 bucks - imagine what they'll do for $6600. Your best option is to save yourself time, energy and grief and try to settle with them now. Others will chime in to disagree - listen to them at your peril.

 

[BackFromTheDebt]

Settling with Discover is probably your best option.

The question comes up about arbitration.  

IF you are able to handle arbitration, then that is SOMETIMES a better way to go only because SOMETIMES you can get a better settlement in arbitration than in court.  Not always.  Sometimes.  If you are not comfortable with arbitration, then that isn't going to help you very much.  

[grateful lady]

17 minutes ago, BackFromTheDebt said:

Settling with Discover is probably your best option.

The question comes up about arbitration.  

IF you are able to handle arbitration, then that is SOMETIMES a better way to go only because SOMETIMES you can get a better settlement in arbitration than in court.  Not always.  Sometimes.  If you are not comfortable with arbitration, then that isn't going to help you very much.  

 

1 hour ago, Goody_Ouchless said:

Discover will follow you to the ends of the Earth for 300 bucks - imagine what they'll do for $6600. Your best option is to save yourself time, energy and grief and try to settle with them now. Others will chime in to disagree - listen to them at your peril.

 

Thank you both for your reply's.  So I don't have a leg to stand on?   I was thinking that there would be something I could dispute, maybe about the their claim being common cause (which is verbal) and stating that I had an open book account,  along with a written contract between the two of us?   Curious  do either of you think they have every signed contract?

[Goody_Ouchless]

All of that legal mumbo jumbo went out with Perry Mason. There used to be another site like this where folks would be encouraged to fight losing battles with asinine theories - and then the regular "experts" would berate the debtor when it all blew up in their face. Just settle and hope they are in a good mood - although Discover is never in a good mood. 

I remember when Discover started - their brand was to give credit to people who were being ignored by other card issuers. Part of that model meant building a hyper-aggressive collections infrastructure. It's like a dirt lot that sell cars with no credit, but is really, really good at performing repos.

 

[grateful lady]

12 minutes ago, Goody_Ouchless said:

All of that legal mumbo jumbo went out with Perry Mason. There used to be another site like this where folks would be encouraged to fight losing battles with asinine theories - and then the regular "experts" would berate the debtor when it all blew up in their face. Just settle and hope they are in a good mood - although Discover is never in a good mood. 

I remember when Discover started - their brand was to give credit to people who were being ignored by other card issuers. Part of that model meant building a hyper-aggressive collections infrastructure. It's like a dirt lot that sell cars with no credit, but is really, really good at performing repos.

 

So funny, but too true. Thank you for making me smile. I have had a couple of rough days. Still need to file my answer. Just realized I had the wrong form.....this court stuff sucks.

[BV80]

33 minutes ago, grateful lady said:

Curious  do either of you think they have every signed contract?

They don't need a signed contract.   All they have to do is show that you used the account and made payments.  They provided a service, you used the account, and that creates a contract.

[BackFromTheDebt]

There are occasional signed contracts, even these days, but that is SO 20th Century.  

As for the arbitration option, that is a possibility IF you go into it knowing you will lose.  

I only recommend that strategy for people in certain situations;

1. You can handle arbitration, perhaps with some coaching.

2. You need to buy some time to save up money for a settlement, or you are trying to use the expense of arbitration to force them into a better settlement,

 

I beat Discover in arbitration, because some law firms along the way had messed things up really, really badly before it got to arbitration.  For example, the case had gone from law firm to law firm, in one case going to a firm in a state I hadn't lived in during the time I had the card.  We are talking about horrible skip tracing.  Some other law firms dumped the case because they had lost to me in arbitration, or were new to arbitration and didn't want to deal with it.  Finally, it went to a law firm where the attorney left the firm, and they found the case a few months before SOL.  Except I could argue the SOL for the state for which the laws applied in the contract, which should be used in JAMS, had expired a couple of years before then.  So it was a mess, and they weren't willing to spend all that money to try to argue that their own contract didn't apply.  

And, that was a long time ago, when everyone was trying to figure out arbitration, which is why some law firms dropped the case like a hot potato.   

I can't think of anyone else on hand who beat them. I got extremely lucky.  

So when someone who beat Discover in arbitration is telling you that it is impossible to beat them in arbitration, maybe you should listen.   

[grateful lady]

19 minutes ago, BackFromTheDebt said:

You can handle arbitration, perhaps with some coaching.

2. You need to buy some time to save up money for a settlement, or you are trying to use the expense of arbitration to force them into a better settlement,

 

I have more than half. 

and I can be trained.

however

I just noticed that one of the forms in my summons is dated 4/6 a full day later than the date that it is date filed 4/5. 

also the signed original that has the seal is not marked X where is says you are served as an individual defendant. I found them on the courts site.

[Goody_Ouchless]

Start by seeing what they'll take to settle. Some original creditors offer great terms - better than debt buyers - but Discover may be different. Other problem is that any direct settlement will generate a 1099, so if you settled for 3300, you would get taxed on the other 3300.

 

[BackFromTheDebt]

If you have over half, there is a good chance you can settle.

I would consider looking into arbitration, just as a way to convince them to settle.

Sometimes that puts pressure on them to settle.  I can think of several cases, including my own, in which Discover originally refused a settlement, but agreed to a settlement when the bills started piling up.  YMMV.  This doesn't work in every case.  No strategy is the best one 100% of the time.  

It can take a while, too.  In my case, and in other cases, the settlement came in between when the hearing was billed and when they paid the bill.  

There are usually several windows in which arbitration can gently nudge them to settle.  If they won't settle now, you can often file an MTC, force them into arbitration, and keep them there until they settle.  

 

When I said I beat them, that means I offered a mutual walkaway, and they finally accepted when it got very expensive.  Do NOT expect that to happen.  As I mentioned earlier, that only worked because various lawyers really messed up their case earlier.  

[Harry Seaward]

4 hours ago, BackFromTheDebt said:

It can take a while, too.

This cannot be stressed enough. I lost 18 months worth of time with family and friends because I had both and a 50 hour a week job.  I don't know what I could have settled for but 50% would have been about $2 an hour for the time I spent on my case. In hindsight, it would have made way more sense to get a part time job to pay a settlement.