Legal Question in Tax Law in California
in 1986 i took a student loan for 1500.00 and i paid that off or so i thought. in 2009 i started recieving letters and phone calls from a collection agency collecting on defaulted student loans. i argued that mine was paid off. being 20 years later i didn't think i could find any paperwork proving that it was paid. twice they told me the only way to take care of this was to sign a promissary note for 5000.00. i didn;t sign cause i knew i paid it. meanwhile in 2009 they took my income tax return and now in 2010 they took a substancial amount that i respectfully earned and was counting on. i am not employed at this point. i searched my records and my mothers records and found all the proof that it had in fact been paid. what concerns me also is that its been on my credit report as defaulted i did not know this. so i have the proof i want my money back and i want it off my credit. what do i do next? help?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Start with contacting the collection agency- send copies of your documentation to the collection agency w/ a succinct explanation of what happened. Copy the corporate office of the original creditor on all correspondence to the collection agency. Fax works especially well because it will date and timestamp receipt of the documents by the lender. If you send correspondence via US Mail you can't be sure they received it and certified mail/fed ex can be expensive.
If you are unable to resolve this issue with the lender and/or collection agency you can move forward with other recovery options. Depending on the amount of money you paid the collection company you can sue them in Superior or Small Claims Court. I would also send a complaint to the regulatory agency that licenses the lender. Which regulator would be determined by what kind of lender it is, i.e. Attorney General, Department of Corporations etc.
If you have further questions feel free to give me a call or email to discuss. Consultations on all matters in my office are at no charge. Thank you for the question and good luck!
Dawn R. VanHorn
Attorney & Counselor at Law
www.VanHornLegal.com
(714) 396-4152
(714) 784-2524 facsimile
Consumer Protection Corner � www.vanhornlegal.wordpress.com
The foregoing has been written by Dawn R. VanHorn, Attorney & Counselor at Law. If the designated recipient(s) of this communication have not fully executed a retainer agreement engaging Dawn R. VanHorn and/or VanHorn Legal relating to the subject(s) of this electronic message nothing herein constitutes nor is intended to be legal advice and as a result should not be relied upon as such.
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