help with a difficult situation

Anonymous · ‎09-21-2008

I have been helping a friend who out of the blue found out that JP Morgan Chase is going after her for alleged debt on an account that was closed more than 7 years ago. Nothing unusual here so far but wait until you hear the details.

She suddenly get a letter from their lawyers about 3 years ago saying you owe us about 4k, pay it or else, you know the type. We responded to them that the account was closed with a zero balance over 4 years ago why now suddenly there is a balance. Can you show how this came to be? Instead of responding, they write back the same exact demand letter saying pay or else we sue. We wrote them again and said why won't you acknowledge the dispute and give us something to show that we actually owe you. They again sent a letter just simply saying pay or else and of course we did the same thing and still nothing. They stopped and nothing more came. We figured they looked into it, figured out they screwed up and that's that.

Suddenly she gets a notice at work that she is being garnished for 40% of her pay plus interest and penalty for a total sum of 9k (with 10% daily interest which is insane). So we got the court papers and found that they filed a lawsuit against her, never served her (although they claim they did when she was supposed to be at work no less), got a default judgment and now getting garnishment because she owes them.

1. She never got served (not just bull here, truly)
2. We never got any court papers because they intentionally used an old address of hers (as shows up on the papers) and they had the new address, because we sent them those replies.
3. They claim they tried to work with her and she never gave them a reply which is horse crap.

So we went to court and asked for an exemption on the garnishment and the judge granted it ordering they give all the money back except for $100 and reduced the garnish to $50 per pay period. Of course she never got all the money back and we went to court and told the judge and he said, sue them otherwise nothing you can do, I issued the order the rest is not up to me.

We brought a motion to vacate the judgment based on everything mentioned previously and the first time the judge denied it without even hearing it. During the exemption motion he said, why didn't you renew the motion so I can hear it (talk about loopy since he didn't even hear it last time, why not just hear the **bleep** motion the first time) and so we renewed the motion and he heard us and said he was inclined to rule in our favor and vacate the judgment and then we get a notice and he denied it, what the hell?

Can anyone for the love of god tell me what to do to help her out. They are getting away with good ol fashion fraud and we don't have the money to get an attorney, its just my law student ass and that's it. I am doing the best I can under contract law and got the exemption in our favor and reduced and all that but I need to get this done for her and I can't, I need help. Any ideas please, friends, lawyers, smart credit guys, anything will help. Thank you in advance for hearing me out.

Creditaddict · ‎09-21-2008

wow you have gotten a lot further then I would know how to with courts.

sorry don't have any knowledge to help but had to say good job so far and good luck. it's hard when they have big lawyers to do everything and us little people have nothing.

Anonymous · ‎09-25-2008

Thank you. I have put up a great fight, I will take that much credit but it has not quite accomplished what is needed. She has no one to turn to and I am doing the best I can given my still relatively limited ability in court.

I know the law, I know the procedure but the problem is why the court will not honor all this. I mean the other side has not submitted a single word in dispute to anything we have submitted, they have not showed up even once and yet the judge keeps ruling in their favor by virtue of just plain old pissing on us.

I just don't get it, if you are a multi million dollar financial company you automatically get every judge on the bench ruling in your favor? It truly feels this way and I am so depressed. Anyway, anyone can find a way around this impasse, please let me know.

Lel · ‎09-25-2008

When you get served, I think you have to sign a form acknowledging receipt of the summons/lawsuit/deposition/whatever. At the least that's what I had to do a couple weeks back. You should be able to find out who exactly was supposed to serve the summons to your friend, and ask to see the form with her signature on it. If they can't produce the signature, then you might have grounds to request that the default judgment be vacated.

Anonymous · ‎09-25-2008

@Lel wrote:
When you get served, I think you have to sign a form acknowledging receipt of the summons/lawsuit/deposition/whatever. At the least that's what I had to do a couple weeks back. You should be able to find out who exactly was supposed to serve the summons to your friend, and ask to see the form with her signature on it. If they can't produce the signature, then you might have grounds to request that the default judgment be vacated.

Not necessarily. Actually in most cases you don't sign anything. That's why they have process servers so they can "swear" under oath that they served you. Unfortunately they can also use it to lie because the law will almost rarely dispute their affidavit unless you can show that if they say they served you on Tuesday at 1 PM, you were sitting in a meeting with 12 other people who will sign saying you were there and therefore you couldn't have been there. This usually will result in a dismissal in your favor with prejudice since the courts REALLY hate this. But otherwise, if you can't show they were lying, you are pretty much screwed even if they ARE lying, this is our case. They didn't serve us but they are saying they did.

We managed to show the judge based on "circumstantial" evidence or anecdotal evidence that they were lying and he believed it and said he was inclined to rule in our favor but then he denies the motion and doesn't even say why, I hate commissioners, they are ex-lawyers who couldn't be judges legitimately and now sit on the bench because the courts can't afford real judges and treat everyone like crap because they can and give no reasons. You can't even appeal or complain about them since they are covered under the waiver that you allowed them to hear the case and so oh well. If you don't, then it can be months before you hear your case when a real judge becomes available.