Credit Card Lawsuits - I Dont Want To Go To Court

Author: Greg Artim

Many people have a fear of going to court. The judge, the jury, it can be a scary place for someone who doesn’t do it every day. Truth be told, however, is that most credit card cases do not require the individual to actually go to court.

The truth of the matter is that many of the credit accounts that go delinquent do not result in immediate lawsuits. What happens in many cases is that the original creditor, whether it is a department store or a financial institution, sells the delinquent account to a collection agency or junk debt buyer. Buying and selling debt is a very large business.

The original creditor does this to wash its hands of the bad debt, and the collection agency likes this exchange because it is able to purchase these delinquent accounts at a substantial discount, often for only a few pennies on the dollar. What does this have to do with you going to court on one of these cases?  Read on.

Credit card cases are typically what I call “document” cases. The credit card company, or collection agency, needs documents to prevail in court.  Most often, they need a cardmember agreement, terms and conditions, monthly account statements, and if the debt was sold, a copy of the Assignment. (Assignment is a contract between original creditor and purchasing debt collection company).  When a debt is sold, at least when it is sold for pennies on the dollar, the documents often are not sold as part of the deal. Most of you are thinking, “That can’t be true, can it”?   It is the truth. Think about the price of the debt. A collection agency pays pennies on the dollar, how much can they actually get? Often, its just a name, address, phone number, account number, balance, and not much else.

What does this have to do with you going to court? Everything. When a collection agency lawsuit is filed on a credit card account, these documents are often missing from the lawsuit. Your proper response is to hire a consumer attorney to defend your interests.  The attorney will file documentation (called Objections in PA where I practice law) that questions the legal sufficiency of the lawsuit. A judge should agree that the lawsuit is insufficient and force the collection agency to come up with the proper documentation. If they are unable to provide this documentation, and this is often the case, then the court ultimately will dismiss the lawsuit. You, personally, never end up in court.  It’s simply just a matter of your attorney handling the case and forcing the collection agency to provide its evidence or suffer a dismissal.

To be fair, I only practice law in Pennsylvania and can only comment on how these cases play out in PA. In my discussions with other consumer attorney in other states, there are often different procedures that need to be followed to obtain a dismissal on these cases. Fortunately, however, most of these procedures require only the attendance of your attorney in a court of law, not you.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/law-articles/credit-card-lawsuits-i-dont-want-to-go-to-court-1862532.html

About the Author

Greg Artim is a partner in the consumer law firm Morrow & Artim, P.C.  based in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.  For more answers to your debt settlement or credit card questions, be sure to visit his website at PA Consumer Attorney or PA Credit Card Law