Sued by LVNV in SC

[AnalysisParalysis]

Hello all,

Being sued by LVNV funding. Hired an attorney to help me and will be filing an answer soon. However, looking for some opinions on overall strategy. My original contract does have an arbitration clause. To complicate things, I have 2 other debts (smaller amounts) also owned by LVNV and several other collection accounts (some with OC's).  No other lawsuits have been filed yet and SOL is close on all debts (September - December range this year). The lawyer thinks that I should make one settlement offer on all 3 LVNV debts. So i'm deciding between these three options:

1. Make an offer to settle this specific lawsuit

2. Make an offer to settle this lawsuit as well as the other LVNV debts

3. Go the arbitration route

I have enough cash on hand to settle all LVNV debt at 30-40%. However, it would leave me with not a lot to deal with any other potential suits. Any insight would be helpful. Thanks in advance. 

 

 1. Who is the named plaintiff in the suit?

LVNV Funding

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

Scott & Associates

3. How much are you being sued for?

$9000

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

SoFi

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

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

At home

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

Yes

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 - ignored everything

9. What state and county do you live in?

SC

10. When is the last time you paid on this account? (looking to establish if you are outside of the statute of limitations) According to them about 2.5 years ago

11. When did you open the account (looking to establish what card agreement may be applicable)? 2017

12. What is the SOL on the debt? 3 years. 

[BackFromTheDebt]

The options are not mutually exclusive. 
 

You can go the arbitration route and still settle. In fact, arbitration is often used as a way to put pressure on the creditors to settle for terms they may not have accepted otherwise.  I have done this on several occasions. 
 

The main questions:

1.  Does this account have an arbitration provision?

2. Do the other LVNV accounts have arbitration provisions?

3. Are there small claims exemptions for any of these accounts?

 

These are extremely important questions which must be answered before deciding your strategy 

[AnalysisParalysis]

37 minutes ago, BackFromTheDebt said:

The options are not mutually exclusive. 
 

You can go the arbitration route and still settle. In fact, arbitration is often used as a way to put pressure on the creditors to settle for terms they may not have accepted otherwise.  I have done this on several occasions. 
 

The main questions:

1.  Does this account have an arbitration provision?

2. Do the other LVNV accounts have arbitration provisions?

3. Are there small claims exemptions for any of these accounts?

 

These are extremely important questions which must be answered before deciding your strategy 

Hey thanks for the response. I read a lot more of the forum posts yesterday after making my post. Appreciate all the value that you provide here. 

1. Yes it does - LVNV even provided the original contract as an attachment to the complaint which shows the arbitration language. 

2. One of them definitely does, I have to research the other one

3. It appears that anything below $7,500 is considered small claims in SC. This account is above that threshold. The other accounts would fall under small claims so potentially could be affected by a small claims exemption. I haven't been sued on these yet but I'm guessing the chances are high since SOL is approaching and LVNV has sued on the first account. 

Seems like the arb strategy definitely applies to the current lawsuit. So far I've filed an answer but haven't filed MTC. I'm thinking I will try to reach out and get a settlement I'm comfortable with but maybe it's worth filing the MTC first for more leverage.

[BackFromTheDebt]

10 minutes ago, AnalysisParalysis said:

Hey thanks for the response. I read a lot more of the forum posts yesterday after making my post. Appreciate all the value that you provide here. 

1. Yes it does - LVNV even provided the original contract as an attachment to the complaint which shows the arbitration language. 

2. One of them definitely does, I have to research the other one

3. It appears that anything below $7,500 is considered small claims in SC. This account is above that threshold. The other accounts would fall under small claims so potentially could be affected by a small claims exemption. I haven't been sued on these yet but I'm guessing the chances are high since SOL is approaching and LVNV has sued on the first account. 

Seems like the arb strategy definitely applies to the current lawsuit. So far I've filed an answer but haven't filed MTC. I'm thinking I will try to reach out and get a settlement I'm comfortable with but maybe it's worth filing the MTC first for more leverage.

Any accounts below the small claims threshold with an arbitration provision with small claims exemption are excellent candidates for pre-emptive arbitration.  
 

Here is how I handled it once — the names are removed to avoid any possible NDA issues. 
 

I was in default for two separate accounts with a large bank.  The arbitration provision has a small claims exemption.  The first account was large, the second one within small claims. 
 

A well known law firm sued me for the first account.  I moved for arbitration and was ordered to file in JAMS. In the meantime, the same law firm sent me a letter about the second account. 
 

I filed a case in JAMS for both accounts.  The law firm sued for the second in small claims. I pointed out their error and they immediately had the case dismissed without prejudice.  I settled both cases with a settlement I was very happy with.  

[AnalysisParalysis]

5 minutes ago, BackFromTheDebt said:

Any accounts below the small claims threshold with an arbitration provision with small claims exemption are excellent candidates for pre-emptive arbitration.  
 

Here is how I handled it once — the names are removed to avoid any possible NDA issues. 
 

I was in default for two separate accounts with a large bank.  The arbitration provision has a small claims exemption.  The first account was large, the second one within small claims. 
 

A well known law firm sued me for the first account.  I moved for arbitration and was ordered to file in JAMS. In the meantime, the same law firm sent me a letter about the second account. 
 

I filed a case in JAMS for both accounts.  The law firm sued for the second in small claims. I pointed out their error and they immediately had the case dismissed without prejudice.  I settled both cases with a settlement I was very happy with.  

Interesting. Hadn't thought of that. I assume you had a reason to file pre-emptively though? Some kind of FDCPA violation?

Honestly, sounds like I'm in a similar situation as you were originally. I have a lot of debt to work through and bankruptcy would be an issue due to my current career so hoping to avoid it. I also have PRA, Calvary, Amex, Chase, BofA  with SOL coming up end of this year on all of them. Any opinion on if I should proactively try to deal with any of them or just stay quiet for now? 

[BackFromTheDebt]

52 minutes ago, AnalysisParalysis said:

Interesting. Hadn't thought of that. I assume you had a reason to file pre-emptively though? Some kind of FDCPA violation?

Honestly, sounds like I'm in a similar situation as you were originally. I have a lot of debt to work through and bankruptcy would be an issue due to my current career so hoping to avoid it. I also have PRA, Calvary, Amex, Chase, BofA  with SOL coming up end of this year on all of them. Any opinion on if I should proactively try to deal with any of them or just stay quiet for now? 

For this particular case, I filed preemptive arbitration to avoid the small claims exemption.  Since I was already filing for another case with the same OC and the same attorney in JAMS. I decided to combine the cases.  Them filing in small claims afterwards created an FDCPA violation, which was a bargaining tool in my settlements. 
 

I can’t tell you what to do with the other accounts.  Some of those, especially AmEx, will follow through arbitration to the bitter end.  
 

I don’t know why some of the others haven’t filed if SOL is coming up soon.  Some may never file.  In that case, it may be better to let sleeping dogs lie.  I had some accounts where they NEVER filed.  I had one where I had to file preemptively when they were about to file in court just before SOL.  Some of the reasons for that filing are no longer applicable for that creditor.  That was a case where the SOL for the state of the OC was shorter by several years than the SOL for my state and the arbitration provision said to use Delaware law, which had a 3 year SOL.  My state has a 6 year SOL.  

Since then they amended the arbitration provision to use the debtor’s SOL  

That only works if the card is in a state with a shorter SOL which has already expired and has a good choice of law provision.