Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Texas
judgment
A lawsuit was filed and a judgment received on a credit card account. Collection attorney would not verify debt when requested. I have a letter from original creditor stating this is an arbitration account, but yet I was never offered the opportunity for arbitration. Reason for not paying original account was due to not receiving statements. After many phonecalls for request for statements, I stopped sending payments due to the fact I was not certain where payments were being applied to. After 5 months, this collection attorney was receiving my statements and immediately filed a lawsuit. Are there any grounds for filing a lawsuit against original creditor (Citibank)?
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: judgment
Dear LawGuru Friend,
There's an old saying that the best defense is a good offense. I don't know if you made any effort in court to defend the suit when it was filed against you; and, even if you did, the matter is now what lawyers call RES ADJUDICATA: a thing already adjudged. Nevertheless, if you plan to get ahead in life and own a home and car and property and money, then you will have to either (1) pay the judgment, (2) compromise the judgment for a lesser amount, (3) sue the creditor and work out a deal to drop you suit if they drop the judgment, and/or (4) seek relief in bankruptcy court--Chapter 7 or 13. If you were to file a suit, you would allege all the bad things that you have alleged in your question here; and you might give some consideration to using the word "fraud", if you think you have been defrauded. There a bundle of things to consider as to how to go about getting rid of this judgment, and one of them is just how far away the judgment creditor and its attorney may be away from where the suit was filed. Sometimes there are collection lawyers who live many miles away from the places they file suits, yet they mail them in and pretty much hope that the debtors do not contest them and that they will be able to take a default judgment. Of course, there is more to it all than this, but this is something to think about. Good luck!
Sincerely,
Hardy Parkerson, J.D.
Retired Lawyer
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