being sued by citibank? Options?

[YoungandFoolish]

Long short, I got a citi card on my first day of college in 2004.Yada Yada I fell behind and stopped paying. Being the irresponsible 19 year old I was I figured it would go away. I have been supporting myself very unsuccessfully for the past six years and I am currently in the process of moving back in with my parents because of my debt and wanting to finish college.

Today I got a letter from a lawyer who got my name in court docs saying I was being sued and offering to take my case. I haven't received anything about this but low and behold when I looked it up on the county website there was my name with a pretrial for 7/30. The amount owed I believe is ~$3400

The CA is Zakheim and Associates. I haven't gotten anything in the mail from them in a long time and I know they have called a few times but never left a message. Should I try to call them and set up a payment arrangement or should I wait until the court date that I haven't gotten anything about. I don't know what to do. I don't have a lot of money but living at home will help.

Any advice would be helpful. 

[RobertEG]

Kinda confusing, but here is what I can piece together.

You opened an acouunt with CITI back in 2004.  You stopped paying at some unspecied time.  (date of your first delinquency with them is very, very important in any subsequent legal or credit reporting issues.... do you know your DOFD on the OC account with CITI?)

So your know your state SOL?

Is this "lawyer" you got a call from wishing to represent you, or is he representing the plaintiff creditor/CA? 

Why no service of collection (dunning) notice by the CA?

Why would a date for legal proceeding be set on a court docket without prioir notice and summons to you for appearance?  Did they satisfy prior legal notice of service?

Is your current address not posted in your CR, or is the legal address for notice posted by the court  incorrect? Who accepted notice of summons?

I would not first contact the CA, unless you fully admit the debt, and just want to pay in full to cease their legal action.  No CR removal will result if you do that.

I would first contact the court and establish their legal grounds for summons on you.  Deal with the court date first.

[YoungandFoolish]

Sorry for the post being hard to follow I was freaking out a little when I wrote it. I just pulled my TU report and it says the following:

Bal: $3264

Date Updated: 06/2010

Limit:$2200

Past Due:$1220 

Est date of removal: 12/2013

I live in florida where SOL is 4 years. Does this mean subtracting 7.5 from 12/2013 I get my DOFD of 6/2013. When I looked at the court website it says they filled a statement of claim on 6/30/10. Is this still within SOL? 

The "lawyer" I got a letter from was offering to represent me or give me advice (the first consult is "free") 

The address the court has on file is my parents address but they have not recieved anything and neither have I. 

[gymbo731]

On your credit report it shows the date when you first stopped paying. What was that date? The first time you were 30 days late and never paid again was when?

That's the DOFD.

SOL and the date it comes off your credit report are two totally seperate things. The 7.5 years from the DOFD is when it will come off your CR.

4 years after your DOFD means they can no longer sue you. If Florida has an SOL of 4 years.

[Anonymous]

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@YoungandFoolish wrote:

Long short, I got a citi card on my first day of college in 2004.Yada Yada I fell behind and stopped paying. Being the irresponsible 19 year old I was I figured it would go away. I have been supporting myself very unsuccessfully for the past six years and I am currently in the process of moving back in with my parents because of my debt and wanting to finish college.

Today I got a letter from a lawyer who got my name in court docs saying I was being sued and offering to take my case. I haven't received anything about this but low and behold when I looked it up on the county website there was my name with a pretrial for 7/30. The amount owed I believe is ~$3400

The CA is Zakheim and Associates. I haven't gotten anything in the mail from them in a long time and I know they have called a few times but never left a message. Should I try to call them and set up a payment arrangement or should I wait until the court date that I haven't gotten anything about. I don't know what to do. I don't have a lot of money but living at home will help.

Any advice would be helpful. 

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First of all, the SOL in Florida for credit card debt is 5 years.  That would indicate that if your last payment was before June of 2005, you should by all means appear in court and raise the SOL as your affirmative defense.  If you want, also file a counter-claim against the creditor for FDCPA violations committed when they attempted to sue you on an expired debt.

If, though, the debt is still within the SOL, there are a couple of options.  As you were undoubtedly not served, one would be to not appear, let them get their default judgment and then promptly file a Motion to Vacate based on lack of jurisdiction (i.e. defective service) and hope the judge dismissed the case with prejudiced.  Then flip your creditor the bird and walk away knowing they cannot do anything to you. 

Or you could appear, tell the court you just found out by accident about this case and have thus had no time at all to prepare a defense.  Make sure the court is informed that the creditor is attempting to defraud the court by performing sewer service.  The court will have to grant a continuance.  Use this time to strike a deal with the creditor.  Make them aware that you are virtually judgment proof and then see howlow you can get them in negotiations.  Most creditors are not that retarded and they understand that even if they get a judgment, in the vast majority of cases a judgment does not mean they will ever see any money.  Paint yourself as the poor, undernourished college kid facing prolonged unemployment even after graduation and offer them 30 cents on the dollar to start.