[Judge Roy Bean]

****Like everything on this site - this is not legal advice. It's probably only worth about as much as you're paying for it, which is nothing!****

Originally Posted by doormonkey

I am the friend mentioned on this post, by JustStartingOut, on July 5 of this year, by the same title.

A debt collection attorney is threatening to sue my husband and myself for nearly $10,000, and they wasted no time mentioning court expenses etc. (several years of unemployment you see) I was busy preparing the VOD-CPN etc. but that wrong middle initial on my husband's name kept jumping out at me. That's all that's wrong...the middle initial. It has been that way all along, on the CC as well.

That's not all that uncommon an error. Many people have cards, phone numbers, utility bills, etc., with their names misspelled. I have yet to see that invalidate a debt on its own; the fact that you acquired things under the name on the card and still possess them is usually sufficient.

If the debt isn't valid they can't even threaten to sue you, but they can try and collect it. Weird how the law works - they can legally try to cajole you into paying it even if you don't owe it - but they can't threaten to sue you knowing the debt isn't valid.

Originally Posted by doormonkey

Nevertheless, I don't want to make any mistakes, if I can avoid them. I'm worried, because we have been so %#?! cooperative with them for about 2 years, sending them our budget, negotiating on the phone, all the time thinking we were doing the "honorable" thing. (So much for financial counseling...I won't name the organization, but they have an excellent reputation among people of faith)

The debt collector/attorney has been working with you for two years and has "an excellent reputation among people of faith?" I'm sorry, but I have a hard time understanding that. Were you involved with a credit counseling program and now something has gone wrong and a debt-collector has become involved?

First, understand the attorney arm of the collector is used to cause just exactly what you're feeling now - fear. They prey on people's fear. They have no more power or authority than your average phone jockey. They have an official-looking logo and a bunch of computer-generated threat letters.

Second, get off the phone. They know how to use your conversation against you. They are trained and no matter how smart you are, you're dealing with trained collectors who deal with hundreds of people every day. They've heard everything and have an answer for just about anything and far too many of them are not above telling you flat-out lies.

There is no legal requirement for you to communicate with them and every call they make has an objective - to put you under more stress and get you to tell them more about your situation. That information is power.

Originally Posted by doormonkey

So, I'm concerned that I may only have one shot at this, and I'm not sure my knowledge (lack therof) or central nervous system is up for a court date. If my husband has to be in the courtroom, we will get chewed up alive. He doesn't have time to learn any of this, and I haven't yet gotten it completely into my head, let alone out of my mouth.

I would rather have this be straightforward, just send the VOD-CPN and be done with it, but I'm not sure I can actually discharge the debt with the wrong strawman. If my husband signs his name correctly, is it an effective contract? If he signs it incorrectly, is he violating some statute that can later come back to bite him? Or is there another strategy that will work better in this type of situation?

These people are threatening to come after us and garnish 100% of my husbands wages, which he knocks himself out to earn 6 days a week. I have read on other posts that there are cases where a judgement has been awarded, and without notice, a bank account can just get completely cleared out. If that happened, we'd be down for the count. No house, only a shelter...with 7 children!!!

Thirdly, in the states I'm familiar with, they can't garnish anything, let alone 100% of anyone's wages, particularly for unsecured debt. They may be able to take you to court and get a judgement from the court against you by filing suit, but until they actually have that ruling in their greedy little hands, they can't touch your husband's wages or get anywhere near your bank account.

Originally Posted by doormonkey

My husband is a subcontractor so he is self-employed, but the contractor he works for may not know how to handle things if someone approaches him to garnish wages and probably won't care to learn. He will probably just cooperate, even though he may not be required to. He's the guy providing most of the work these days. We can barely live on 100% of my husband's wages, because we're busy catching up, let alone only part of them. We'd be doing fine if we could just get current.

Our family has pulled together through this. My 3 eldest sons are working to contribute towards getting out of this crisis, and even the little ones offer us what they can to help.

Can they put a lien on our home to pay the debt?

Not for unsecured debt. You need to expand your scope of study.

Originally Posted by doormonkey

As you can see, I barely have a grasp on the basics here. I'm reading into the night many nights, but don't feel I have much time before some unknown terrible thing could happen. These folks aren't giving us any breathing space in which to get back on our feet and recover. This is keeping me up worrying many nights...so I guess it's better to read and inform myself than worry. Having our teenage sons busy as co-providors rather than pursuing their education is not exactly our dream for their precious youths either, though they are very cheerful about their role in this regard.

Jersee's success story has really encouraged me. All this theory confuses me though. I tend to learn most easily by doing after I read. Then I really get down the theory, and can actually explain it to others. The stakes seem rather high with this though. If I "do" something wrong, what is the likelihood of getting in worse trouble than ever?

They don't penalize pro-se litigants just for defending themselves - they roll their eyes and wish people wouldn't play lawyer in their courtroom, but the end result is almost always that if you bought things on a credit card and haven't paid it off (and you've already admitted to them you did) the creditor obtains a judgment in their favor and then, depending on your state, things can get ugly.

VERY FEW pro-se litigants win in these cases. Much of what you see on the forums here is interesting theory for discussion about the nature of debt that fails at trial.

Originally Posted by doormonkey

So, I need things explained very simply, no assumptions of prior knowledge or I will get lost. I have the list of abbreviations, but if I don't get something, and seem very obtuse, it's because I AM very obtuse. :confused:

Thank you for your time, and for this website.