Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Pennsylvania
National Arbitration Board
I have been making small payments on an old debt to a law firm/collection agency. They called and said the payments had to go up and I had to pay a lump sum immediately. I told them I could not at this time.
Today I got a letter indicating that I've been taken to a ''National Arbitration Board'' and that I have 20 days to mail my response. I've looked several times over that papers and can not find any address to respond. (only the collections agency/law firms address is there)
I was told to ignore this and keep sending what I've been sending, but I don't want a judgement against me. What exactly is this National Arbitration.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: National Arbitration Board
The Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure were amended effective February 1, 2006 to prevent this type of collection procedure. In order to confirm one of these "Arbitration Awards" now, you must have either attended an arbitration or agreed to arbitration after submission of the claim to an arbitrator. A couple of years ago a law firm was sending out Arbitration Complaints to something called "National Arbitration Forum" which appointed attorneys to review paperwork and enter awards for credit card companies. They then confirmed the awards under another procedure and obtained judgments. A lot of these, in fact, I believe almost all of them were entered totally by default and probably a good number of them were barred by the statute of limitations.
You indicate that this is an "old" debt. Suit on the debt may be barred by the statute of limitations or you may have other defenses. You should be very careful with what you sign. Please feel free to call my office if you want to discuss this further.
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