topic Re: Question about being sued by collection agency / process in Rebuilding Your Credit

Question about being sued by collection agency / process

tidbit — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 03:01:43 GMT

Hi. I have a question about how the process works when you are sued by a collection agency. Almost 2 years ago, I had someone show up at my house giving me a summons to appear in court. Actually, they didn't give it to me, it was left on my door when I wasn't home. It was from a law firm representing a collection agency. Before this summons, I had not heard a peep from them regarding a lawsuit or anything. My date to appear was just two weeks out from when I received their summons. I knew I owed this debt, so I called their office and paid it.

About 3 months later, I received a large manilla envelope in the mail from the same law firm / colletion agency contained paperwork they had filed with the courthouse stating that they intended on suing me and I had 30 days to file a response. I filed my response disputing this debt and didn't hear anything for almost a year. Last month, I received another large manilla envelope with more papers - "Plaintiff's first set of interrogatories, request for admissions and request for prodution of documents".

My question is, how is it that they were able to just order me to court the first time, but this time, all this paperwork is involved. Please note I have lived in the same home since 2012, so change of address isn't a cause. I am writing my response tonight and just curious about how this came about. I feel like I'm missing something here. Please help.

Re: Question about being sued by collection agency / process

RobertEG — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 08:24:28 GMT

The first, and primary, question is that if you previously paid the debt, then there would no longer be any delinquent debt upon which to base any subsequent attempts to collect on a non-existent debt.

Is it clearly the same debt that you previously paid, and if so, do you have documentation of that payment?

Re: Question about being sued by collection agency / process

tidbit — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 10:50:50 GMT

Hi Robert. This is a completely different debt. I am disputing this debt, but I’m wondering about the difference in their methods on the two. Nothing but a summons to court on the first one, but lots of back and forth paperwork on the 2nd.

Re: Question about being sued by collection agency / process

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 16:41:08 GMT

Sounds like the second collection agency has better legal representation or something changed in the laws for what's required for them to bring a lawsuit against you. Are you completely disputing the debt? Meaning it's not your debt? Or are you disputing the amount owed? In either case, they need to provide you with proof of the debt and the amount owed. Is that included in the paperwork they sent you? When you go to file your response with the court, you can always ask this question there and they should be able to give you some sense of why the difference in tactics.

Re: Question about being sued by collection agency / process

tidbit — Sat, 16 Feb 2019 18:31:38 GMT

It’s the same collection agency and same lawyer.