Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in North Carolina

Can "they" take her to court? Of course. Anyone can sue anybody else at any time for anything. Will they recover? It depends.

First, who is calling? A debt collector? Or the original creditor? Second, your daughter should never speak to these people unless she wants to resolve the debt. No good ever comes from talking to them. Thirdly, from their point of view, what they stated was accurate. They do not care about your daughter's personal misfortunes - they only want money and the only purpose in speaking to them is to negotiate a resolution of the debt.

Once your daughter determines who is calling, she needs to decide if this is her debt. Has she been contacted in writing at all? Under the federal fair debt collection practices act, a debt collector (the act only applies to debt collectors) has to send a letter within 5 business days advising of the particulars about the debt - the original creditor, how much is owed etc.

Is this a debt for which your daughter is legally responsible? If so, when was the debt last paid? Has it been less or more than 3 years (assuming the debt was incurred and the card take out in North Carolina)?

What your daughter does will depend on the answers to these questions. Briefly, her options aree as follows (assuming this is her debt):

(1) If she has many many debts stemming from her divorce, maybe she should file bankruptcy. If she is interested in that, she should consult a bankruptcy attorney. She should look to see if she qualifies for a chapter 7. Bankruptcy has its own consequences and if this is your daughter's only debt, I would not recommend that she file.

(2) If she has no assets now and no means to pay, maybe she should do nothing and use the time to save as much as possible. If and when she is sued, she can use her savings to resolve the debt at that time.

(3) If she would like to put this behind her now and she is able to borrow the funds from friends or family, she should look to resolve the debt for something less than what is owed. The precise amount will depend on the particular creditor/collector and how delinquent the bill and how close it is to a lawsuit and what they are willing to accept. Depending on who it is, they could settle for as low as 15% or as high as 80%.

If your daughter does resolve this at some point by paying, under NO circumstances should she pay a penny BEFORE she gets a settlement letter outlining the terms of the settlement and that payment of the settlement amount will be accepted as payment in full. Once payment is made, within 30 days after payment is received by the collector, your daughter also needs to get a letter stating that payment was made, the account is closed and that the payment was accepted as settlement in full and that the account will be reported as such to any credit bureaus.