Sued by Midland Credit by Clarkson & Hale LLC in Columbia SC (1.5 hours from me)

[KimH4]

I was served papers by the sheriffs office and I'm being sued by Midland Credit for a Capital One credit card. I read the other reports on here about this horrible company. I do not have my original credit card agreement to see if it has the arbitration clause. I have not had any contact with Midland or the attorney. Midland repeatedly called me numerous times a day from several different area codes. I kept blocking the numbers. They threatened me over the voicemail several times. They called my kids and did the same thing. Obviously most people have been effected with Covid but it seems Midland doesn't care! 

What is the next step? I have about 2 weeks to reply to be within my 30 days. I plan on calling local debt attorney's tomorrow and see what they can help with. Is their any advise you could give? It would be nice for this debt to go away! It's for $11,684.79. Thank you in advance for your help!

 

[BackFromTheDebt]

I don't know anything about SC court rules, so my advice will be rather general.

 

1. How long have you had this card?  A little over a decade ago Cap 1 got rid of arbitration.  HOWEVER, if you had the card before they got rid of arbitration, you may still be able to use arbitration.  That is, only if you opened the card before they got rid of it. If you had the card less than a decade, it won't work.  I think they got rid of it sometime in 2009.

2.  Midland actually DOES have a hardship policy for SOME people who are in dire financial straits, esp. for medical reasons.  You really should talk to their attorney's office if there is any chance you would qualify. At least one person who posted to CIC was able to make their debt go away this way.  

3. You mentioned threatening voice mails to you and your kids.  That is a really big thing, if they really were threatening, or if they gave improper information to your kids.  Did you save the voice mails?  That is important.  If they broke the law with their threats, you may be able to sue the attorney's office for FDCPA violations.  

What did they say in these voice mails?  If they crossed the line, you may need to contact a consumer attorney.  

I can't tell you what would happen.  In some cases, FDCPA violations don't matter.  In others the award to the plaintiff may be reduced.  I had some cases in which the law firm violated the FDCPA, and I got them to drop the law suits in return for me not pressing the FDCPA violations.  That was a different firm in a different state, I had serious violations, and there was arbitration in that situation, so what worked for me may not work for you.  

 

[BV80]

11 hours ago, KimH4 said:

They threatened me over the voicemail several times.

How did they threaten you?

[KimH4]

Thank you for the replies. The card was opened in 2015 so the arbitration won't work. The threatening calls were made several times over several months. They threatened to have me arrested if I did not return their call. They threatened to contact my employer and show up at my place of business. They left these same messages on my kids voicemails. Unfortunately I did not save the voicemails. I do have a call record of the phone numbers and times they called. I downloaded Mr. Number and I blocked the calls that came from their million numbers. That app saves the information. The app would either hang up on the call or sent it to voicemail. I never kept the voicemails because I never thought they would take me to court especially during Covid. I had to forbearance my mortgage for a year so paying a CC bill was not an option. Thank you for your advice. 

I'm going to contact attorney's today in my area and see if I can get some guidance. I don't want to contact the credit card attorney until I speak to someone because I don't want to mess anything up. Thank you again for helping!