Quote:
Originally Posted by deepindebt  I recently sent out a DV 1 letter to an attorney's office for a creditor for my wife. The attorney's office never responded with verification of the debt. They responded with a rather nasty letter telling my wife to contact to make payment arrangements. I recently sent out DV 2 to the attorney's office. However, in between that time my wife was served with a judgement papers to respond to.
How best should I handle this situation? |
They can't do that.
It is a violation of the FDCPA (look up section 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(b)). If you sent them a DV letter, they cannot answer it with a summons. By law, they HAVE to cease ALL collection activity and validate the debt first. You will have an affirmative defense and can site this case:
Spears vs Brennan
You also have grounds for a countersuit here. Make sure you keep EVERYTHING so that you have a good paper trail.
You definitely need to answer the summons within the time frame you were given (I think it's usually 20 days). Call up the court and first verify that the summons is legit. They should also have the papers to file an Answer (they may even have these online). File your Answer with the court. Then the case cannot proceed and will more than likely get thrown out.