Collector Failed to Verify Debt

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ndragon

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We have a debt that has been assigned to an attorney's office and the firm has filed a civil complaint against my wife. I sent a letter disputing the validity of the debt and the firm replied with several printouts that failed to verify the debt as required by Speers v. Brennan. They are pushing forward with legal action anyhow and have filed a motion for summary judgment.
I have sent them a letter explaining their failure to validate the debt but it appears they don't plan to do anything about it. Can they get a judgment even if they violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by not providing adequate validation of the debt before proceeding with legal action?

-Nick
 
If they filed the lawsuit before your validation request, the request has no ability to stop the court action. Did they make any contact with your wife prior to filing the lawsuit? If they failed to give you a validation notice and they made contact before the lawsuit, that could be grounds for a counter-suit. If the lawsuit is the 'initial contact,' they are not required to give you the notice. Do you know if this attorney falls under the requirements of the FDCPA? If they do not, there would be no requirement to respond to a validation notice at all. View http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/1692a.html to get the actual definition. § 1692a (6) is the section you are looking for.
If the attorney doesn't usually do collection actions, they could be exempt from this statute.
Hope this helps!
Brian
 
By definition they are in fact a debt collector. They mailed their initial notice informing my wife of the debt and we responded with a request to validate the debt. They replied with a copy of the original credit card application, the original contract, and something showing an amount due that is different than what they are seeking.
As soon as we received that document I replied requesting more information regarding how they reached the amount they are seeking. I got a summons as a response. No additional information has been submitted by the firm verifying the amount they are seeking.

-Nick
 
I have seen in many cases where the validation is satisfied by establishing that the account is yours, and there is a debt. From what you describe, they have done that.
Do you have any defense against the debt? Have you responded to the summons?
Even if they violated the FDCPA, that doesn't stop them from getting a judgment. It simply gives you grounds to counter-sue, or sue them in a separate action.
I would respond to the filing with a denial of everything, and use the discovery process to get the validation information you want.
Brian
 
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