MTC being heard next week, judge questioning

[loveluck]

I will finally have my MTC heard in court next week in a civil Tenn court (has been rescheduled twice).

JDB didnt respond to the MTC i filed 3 months ago (although i don't think they had to).  But they did recently send me dozens of pages of copies of cc statements going back about 2 years.  Not sure if this was sent because they are on autopilot (there were lots of default judgements given the first day of court as well as a few "verbal denials" scheduled for this upcoming date along with mine). Or maybe they plan to contest the MTC and they are letting me know they have "proof".  Not many (if any) credit card charges were recorded in these cc statements, as this seemed to be the period a lot of interest was accumulating and small payments being made.

 

Question #1: I just noticed the cc agreement states that the party that brings the lawsuit and asserts the claim is the party that commences the arbitration proceedings.  Does this mean that if my MTC is granted, that JDB must start the application process?  Do i just wait? What if i have already filed? (I filed 3 months ago for my original court date but my MTC wasn't heard at that time, only my sworn denial.) Do i cancel this filing (the arbitration company has been corresponding with me about the status, but the court dates keep changing by JDB.)

 

Question #2: If the judge asks me why i want arbitration and asks me if this is my debt, seeing as how the JDB submitted all of these cc statements to the court, I am assuming I just need to keep focused on arbitration, correct?  Does the judge expect a 'yes' or 'no' answer?  The answer i am planning to give is focused on arbitration being my right as given in the cc agreement and all that that entails. Is this sufficient?  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Clydesmom]

7 hours ago, loveluck said:

Not many (if any) credit card charges were recorded in these cc statements,

They don't have to be to prove the account is yours and you defaulted.  This is a common misconception that they have to show each and every charge you made.  A consumer has a specified time period to dispute a charge with the creditor.  Typically 60-180 days.  Once that expires the charges are valid and that is the end of it.  So unless you had identity theft where you disputed charges, filed a FACTA and police report what charges that were made are irrelevant.

7 hours ago, loveluck said:

Question #1: I just noticed the cc agreement states that the party that brings the lawsuit and asserts the claim is the party that commences the arbitration proceedings.  Does this mean that if my MTC is granted, that PR must start the application process?  Do i just wait? What if i have already filed? (I filed 3 months ago for my original court date) Do i cancel this filing (the arbitration company has been corresponding with me about the status, but the court dates keep changing by PR.)

DO NOT get caught up on the "who is supposed to file the case" nonsense.  It does not matter.  If you want the court to believe you are serious about arbitration and not get nailed with a frivolous filing then you file.  Your costs don't change because you filed and they didn't.  The last thing you want is to assume it is there responsibility after you motioned the court to compel it then do nothing and have the Plaintiff prevail on a motion to re-instate the lawsuit because you never followed through.

7 hours ago, loveluck said:

Question #2: If the judge asks me why i want arbitration and asks me if this is my debt, seeing as how PR submitted all of these cc statements to the court, I am assuming I just need to keep focused on arbitration, correct?  Does the judge expect a 'yes' or 'no' answer?  The answer i am planning to give is focused on arbitration being my right as given in the cc agreement and all that that entails. Is this sufficient? 

I would not say "my" right but would state that after reading the terms and conditions you want to exercise that right under the agreement the Plaintiff says applies to the account as you feel it would be a less intimidating venue for a pro-se consumer.

[loveluck]

2 minutes ago, Clydesmom said:

I would not say "my" right but would state that after reading the terms and conditions you want to exercise that right under the agreement the Plaintiff says applies to the account as you feel it would be a less intimidating venue for a pro-se consumer.

Okay, great. Thank you.

[nobk4me]

Another reason you want arbitration:  arbitration is private, whereas everything done in court is a matter of public record.  You prefer that your financial matters remain private.

[BackFromTheDebt]

2 minutes ago, nobk4me said:

Another reason you want arbitration:  arbitration is private, whereas everything done in court is a matter of public record.  You prefer that your financial matters remain private.

This is true.  
I am in the banking business these days.  There are background checks done on employees.  The first time I got a job in banking I had a lot of court cases and a few arbitration cases.  For each of the court cases I had to go to great lengths to prove I didn’t owe any money.  The arbitration cases didn’t show up at all in the searches.
 

People who are in the military, or are considering a military career, or need some sort of security clearance now or in the future should go to arbitration as quickly as possible.  In fact, if you are in a profession which may require any clearance in the future, strongly consider preemptive arbitration.  That is, file in arbitration before they sue you.  
 

There are several other situations for which preemptive arbitration is called for  I have personally done all three  

1.   There is a small claims exemption and the case would be filed in small claims   I did this once   
 

2.  Your spouse or relative is facing a case  I filed in JAMS for my wife’s case once   She wouldn’t have been able to handle a court case but I could act as her unpaid non-attorney representative in JAMS 

3.  The arbitration agreement says to use Delaware or whatever law and the SOL is passed in Delaware but not your state.  I did that with Discover. Discover later changed their arbitration agreement to use the SOL of the debtor’s state, so this may not apply anymore