Sued by Portfolio Recovery Associates in Washington state

[dawnhu]

Hi Everyone;

I'm being sued by Portfolio Recovery Associates for almost 2,000. Original credit card was opened in Texas, I now live in Washington state, SOL for Texas is 4 years and PFA is within the SOL...also  In addition, they do have a very strong case.  This is the timeline..

In September 2016, I received a notice of appearance from PFA. I did file my answers in October 2016, filed a copy with the court and sent the copy to the lawyer listed on the document. Due to my lack of experience, in one of my answers I do admit to owing the debt to Synchrony Bank. (My assumption is that is all they need in court to win the case).

In August 2018, I received a msj, which states that relief is demanded due to no genuine issue of material fact. It goes on to state that if a summary judgement is not granted in the Plaintiff's favor that the court, by examining the pleadings and evidence before it, and by interrogating counsel, ascertain what materials facts are actually in good faith controverted and there upon make an order specifying that facts that appear without substantial controversy and direct such further proceedings in the actions are just.

The next page states that facts, basically states I made no objections to the charges and balances on my Synchrony bank statements, which is true.

It then states that my account was sold to PFA and I now owe them..

The evidence they relying upon is my admittance, declaration of custodian records, monthly statement of account, and bills of sale.

Next page goes on to state a breach of contract

next page cites that while Washington courts have previously required more than monthly statements to establish credit card acceptance, that my case in paticular does not meet this standard and they cite the  Stratman case to establish precedence. They also list another case Sunnyside Valley, where due to not disputing the debt for over 3 years that they now can legally acquiesced to the accuracy of the debt of the stated balance and I'm now barred from now arguing that the balance is somehow invalid. 

 

Next page is Attorney fees

Next page after is the Declaration of Custodian of Records from a PFA employee.

Next page is Exhibit A-which shows my last statement of last date of payment, after that is the statement a few months later with late fees, etc which balooned the payment up by almost 600 dollars.

Next page is Exhibit B-Bill of Sale but my name and account number is not listed anywhere at all on this document.

Next document is just document for the judge to sign to award the plaintiff, (I'm guessing this is for the 98 percent of people who don't show up)

 

So this is my question; it looks like they have a very winnable case. I'm filing my response in the next few days. I will most likely settle, but I don't want to just ignore and they automatically get a default judgement, most important thing to me is not having my wages garnished and not have a judgement on my credit report. I considered calling them to settle, but I don't trust them. I feel like we will make an agreement on a settle amount, which will lull me into a false sense of security, which means I don't respond to the MSJ and they decide to get the default judgement anyway. 

so a couple of questions, first of all, what paperwork do I need to file when responding to the MSJ?

and even though PFA seems to have done everything by the book in my case I'm considering a counter suit, I just have to find one or 2 violations, if I'm able to find those,what are the steps for a counter suit?

I've already reached out to a local lawyer and they said it isn't worth  hiring a lawyer over as the lawyers fees would be as much as the debt.

Please get back to me as soon as possible, will be filing the msj response in just a couple of days..thanks

One last thing per SOL if following the 4 year rule, do they go by the transaction date, for example lets say transaction date was August 13th,2014 but posted date for payment was August 20th,2014,which date does SOL fall under? In addition does the sol the last payment date to  when the Plaintiff filed the notice of appearance which in my case was October 2016, or does it go by when they filed the MSJ which was this month or does it go by the court date which is in a couple of months?

[Bren2722]

When did your acct become default? Check out Mertola vs Santos new case law on sol by the Supreme Court on July 27,2018

[dawnhu]

Thanks so much for the reply, last date of payment was August 2014, which means they are within the SOL per Texas law, I just don't know if I might be able to argue that they waited for 2 years to file an msj after I responsed to the notice of  appearance but again due to my lack of experience I never requested a trial take place..On another note, I  read somewhere that SOL starts 30 days after last date of payment..maybe I'm misreading the Santos case, but it seems to strengthen the Plaintiff's side although I'm in need of a few hours of sleep so maybe I'm misintrepreting?

[Clydesmom]

9 hours ago, dawnhu said:

One last thing per SOL if following the 4 year rule, do they go by the transaction date, for example lets say transaction date was August 13th,2014 but posted date for payment was August 20th,2014,which date does SOL

WHERE you opened the account has NO effect on the SOL for suit.  WHERE you live when you are sued does.  WA state has a 6 year SOL so even with a default date of 2014 they are well within the SOL for suit.  The second problem is once they filed the suit the SOL tolls (stops running) while the suit is active so it does not matter how much time has passed since they filed as long as the suit is still active with the court.

NONE of which matters now because of admitting to owing the debt when you answered the suit.  Your only hope is to settle and quite frankly by admitting the debt you have very little chance of them taking less than the full amount because they know they can get a judgment for the entire amount, court costs, attorney fees and post judgment interest.  All you can do is make an offer and see if they accept it and keep negotiating until you both come to an amount you agree on.

[BV80]

9 hours ago, dawnhu said:

One last thing per SOL if following the 4 year rule, do they go by the transaction date, for example lets say transaction date was August 13th,2014 but posted date for payment was August 20th,2014,which date does SOL fall under? In addition does the sol the last payment date to  when the Plaintiff filed the notice of appearance which in my case was October 2016, or does it go by when they filed the MSJ which was this month or does it go by the court date which is in a couple of months?

Even if you still lived in Texas, the debt would still be within the SOL because filing a lawsuit tolls (stops the running of the clock) the SOL.

[dawnhu]

thanks for the responses; since I admit to the debt looks like we will be settling, and no need to do an opposition answer to the msj? Also if we settle, there is no need for a court date right? Do I just ask for the plaintiff to withdraw the suit? Also there are 4 lawyers listed on my msj, do I just contact the one checkmarked and listed on the plaintiff's behalf.  On another note, before I knew any better, there is a debt consolidation company I hired a couple years ago to help me pay off a couple of collection agencies that I owed, one of them will be paid off in September,so I guess PFA will just take that companies place....grrrrr

[Clydesmom]

8 hours ago, dawnhu said:

Also if we settle, there is no need for a court date right?

Correct.

8 hours ago, dawnhu said:

Also there are 4 lawyers listed on my msj, do I just contact the one checkmarked and listed on the plaintiff's behalf.

Yes.