Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia

Re: Attorney filed judgment w/o knowledge or consent of CC

Assuming that the credit company sold your delinquent account to the collection attorney or the agency for which he works, the attorney was free to pursue whatever enforcement action he deemed appropriate within the limits of the law.

However, if the credit company had reached an arrangement with you(or your representaives)to settle the debt, it was incumbent upon them(the CC) to notify the debt collecting attorney or his agency that such an accommodation had been reached, that all further collection action should cease and that actions to compensate the lawyer as required under the terms of the sale of the delinquent account for whatever billable time he had expended upon the matter would be forthcoming.

The fact that this credit company is now refusing to give you (or anyone else,undoubtedly) a written explanation as to how and why they messed up in this situation tells you volumes about their possible liability in this matter rather than that of the collection attorney.

Re: Attorney filed judgment w/o knowledge or consent of CC

I'm not sure what the SOL is on the FDPCA. Generally, cases involving injury to monetary interests would be 5 years. An injury to the person or personal interests would be 2 years. Why is the SOL a concern in this case?

The most important thing that you need to do, in my opinion, from what little I know, is to file a "motion to vacate" in the court where the judgment was entered. A judgment that is VOID can be vacated.

In your case, the judgment was based upon your "default." If you were specifically told NOT to appear, because the case was being dropped, then you were not in default. As a result, the judgment was entered on false pretenses, and would be void, and it can be vacated under 8.01-428.

Of course it may be your word against theirs.