Fraud
Complaint
paige
Country: United States
I am being sued by Mary Jane Elliott in Novi, MI for a Washington Mutual credit card that I have never had. I asked for verification of debt at which they laughed and said they would sue me. Sure enough, I have received the summons and complaint.
I called JP Morgan/Chase who purchased Washington Mutual who said I do not now or have I ever had an account with Washington Mutual. They also said that since Washington Mutual has very publicly went under, many unscrupulous collection agencies and low-level attorneys are using Washington Mutual's name and harassing people.
If you search Mary Jane Elliott on the internet you will see that this pathetic agency is fraudulently suing many people!
I called JP Morgan/Chase who purchased Washington Mutual who said I do not now or have I ever had an account with Washington Mutual. They also said that since Washington Mutual has very publicly went under, many unscrupulous collection agencies and low-level attorneys are using Washington Mutual's name and harassing people.
If you search Mary Jane Elliott on the internet you will see that this pathetic agency is fraudulently suing many people!
Comments
Fight it. Write a debt validation letter to Mary Jane. Tell her this is not your debt and she needs to validate it. She does not own the debt and more than likely she is representing a debt buyer that is not licenced in Michigan.
Throw everything at her just stay way from the afirmative defenses. When she files a summons, go down to the courthouse and write a response and sign your name and put Pro Se underneth your name.
First it will go to arbitration. in Arbitration you can be a beligerant as you want. They are not a court of law. do what ever you want. Heck, tell the arbitrators they owe you a debt and tell them they have 30 days to respond or you'll consider the debt valid. You can even go as far as telling them to [***]. Again they are not a judge and you cannot get contempt there.
What will happen next is she will file a summary judgement. A summary judgement is a way to speed up the process. When a summary judgement is filed she is also telling the judge that you have no case, find in the favor of me. fight this one also. With enough static and a well written response you can get this to trial. You want a jury trial. Do you think there will be a debt collector on the jury? heck no. It will be an unemployed auto worker who is already bitter at the collection agents that came after them and took their house and all they want to do is stick it to someone. Justice served.
Answer all court papers sent to you no matter what. You do not want a default judgement at all.
Google debt collection and you will find a plethora of ways to defend yourself in court and win.
one final thought. She sent you a dunning letter that was not sent with a delivery receipt. She really has no proof the letter got to you so if a judgement has already been placed against you just ask where the dunning letter is and where all the delivery receipts are for all the court papers that HAVE to be served to you. A judge will not put up with improper service of a summons. And for god sakes stop calling them. Do everything is writing. calling them can accidently cause the debt to reage or get you to say something you would never say if thought out in a letter.
You may or may not have any responsibility for a corporate card, but many debt collectors will deceptively tell you that you do since that is the only way they will get any money out of you.
The contact with your employer, however, especially lacking a judgement and garnishment order, is third party disclosure of the debt, done solely to threaten to embarrass you in front of your employer, to coerce you into paying what you may or may not owe just to make them stop. You may be able to sue THEM, under FDCPA.
Illegal coercion is even more likely on old debt such as this. If the last payment was in 2002, about 8 years have passed, and in most states, SOL may have passed and after 7 years from the original date of delinquency they can't even put it on your credit reports. Thus they may be willing to resort to illegal harassment, trying to get you to make even a token payment which might restart SOL and leave you on the hook for the whole amount.
Contact an attorney. Since FDCPA allows courts to award attorney fees on top of statutory and actual damages, you may be able to find one with experience in this area willing to work on contingency.
Try www.naca.net
Either way, the judgment may be vacated, and the garnishment reversed, with possible damages and your attorney fees, if you respond promptly.
Contact an attorney with experience in consumer debt.
You might try www.naca.net
Requesting validation is not a substitute.
You may, however, use "discovery" to force them to produce documentation of the alleged debt. If the debt is so old it is past SOL, you may also be able to raise that to get the case thrown out. In addition, if they are suing you in error, or when the debt was past SOL, you may also be able to sue them for violations of FDCPA.
Get an attorney.
They appear to be looking for default judgements, and benefit from being very sloppy either in identifying and serving the correct person, or in garnishing the correct accounts.
If you are stuck in this position, or if you have just found out that they have gotten a default judgement against you without serving you, get an attorney immediately. If they have sued you "in error", or failed to serve you notice of that suit to obtain a default judgement, you may be able to vacate it and sue them.
I had a question for you on affirmative defenses. You said to stay away from them. Why is that? Don't you want to answer a summons and complaint with some affirmative defenses.
BTW. Thanks for joining Mary....
You may be able to sue them for FDCPA violations for misrepresenting the status of the debt (that YOU owe it), and recovery your attorney fees.
Do you have reason to believe they have demanded payment for a debt you don't owe, or for more than you owe?
Did they make any deceptive statements to convince you to pay without requesting validation, or did they fail to notify you that you could request validation?