Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia

Re: Statue of limitation for a 1999 loan

You are not giving enough information here, but then nobody does on these questions. The most important question is to determine whether or not the creditor has already gone to court and won a judgment. You can search for your name on www.courts.state.va.us in the County involved and you may be able to see whether there has been a case against you already or not. You may also be able to check this information on your credit report. If there is already a court judgment, you may be entirely out of luck, regardless of what defenses you might have had. If they served you 'notice' at the wrong address (an old address) you might be able to get the court judgment 'vacated,' but then a trial would be immediately scheduled in the case, and you'd have to come and defend against it. At the time they filed the suit (if they did) it probably was within the statute of limitations.

If they have not yet gone to Court, the next question is when was the last payment DUE? I assume that this is a written contract, so the statute of limitations is 5 years from the last time that the something was DUE to be done. (Not when the contract was signed, but when something that was supposed to have been done was not done. That is, the date of the "breach.") So, if the payment you failed to make was more than 5 years ago, then the debt is uncollectible. HOWEVER, in Virginia, a creditor is entitled to

The worst possible thing you could do is not show up for a court date. Even though the statute of limitations may be expired, you still could lose anyway if you 'default' by not showing up for the court date. While you might think that it is good to hide, under Virginia law it is actually very dangerous. If they send you 'notice' to the wrong address, you could lose by default and never know that there was a court date you were supposed to show up for.

So I would recommend that you write back (don't call WRITE) and ask them for more information and documentation of the debt. TELL THEM your new address. (It is actually safer for you, if there is not already a court judgment against you.)

I am available to handle these things in court here in Virginia, and I am not expensive. What County was this in?

It will probably not make any difference that you are in California, except that it will be a pain for you to come and testify, if that becomes necessary. You can always hire an attorney (like me) to appear for you here, without you actually coming here, though.

Jon Moseley (703) 850-3733. [email protected]

Re: Statue of limitation for a 1999 loan

Please fax your correspondence to me at 714 363 0229 and include your phone number. I will call you and advise you if you have a case or what to do to resolve your problem. You may be o.k. and the statute of limitations has run.