Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia

Re: Subpoena Duces Tecum from collection agency

If you are the defendant and they are the plaintiff, then that strikes me as truly bizarre. Keep in mind I only know what little you have described to me. However, it makes no sense to me why the creditor would be asking you for those documents.

First, when documents are requested from you, you are only responsible to produce documents that you actually have, or which you can retrieve (such as you lent your documents to your CPA or your lawyer or have them in a storage unit, so you can go get them).

You are not responsible to produce documents you don't have, even if you did have them at one point in time.

So, there should be no consequences if you don't have them.

The creditor (credit card company) has the burden of proof in proving the case. It is not up to you to prove that you don't owe the money (although you might have to convince the judge that you didn't make charges or something like that).

Therefore, the only thing that I can think of is that the collection agency DOESN'T HAVE the documents necessary to prove PART of their case, and they are hoping you do.

For example, in order to get attorneys fees and a rate of interest above 6%, they would need to have your original signature agreeing to pay the high interest and attorneys fees.

They can probably collect the main amount, but not the high rate of interest without your signature on the application or agreement.

So, it may be that they don't have the documentation they need and they are hoping they can get it from you.

One of the reasons why they might not have this documentation, is that credit card companies SELL over-due accounts to law firms and collection companies, and often the buyer does not get very good documentation from the credit card company.