Sued by Palisade Collections

[cns8786]

Hello,

I received a summons stating that I was being sued by Palisades Collections for an old Providian CC that I had back in 2001. The summons was sent via Regular Mail with no return address to a place I lived almost three years ago. It was only by chance that I ran into my old roommate and he told me it was there for me.

The amount is over $1500 and was originally given to Wolpoff and Abramson who, I guess sold it to Palisades.

My questions are:

1. Shouldn't this have been sent Certified or someway to prove that I received it?

2. If the SOL in California is 2 - 4 years, depending on the type of account, is this out of date?

3. Do they have the right to collect such a debt?

4. How should I respond or, should I?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

In many instances the failure to find the defendant who was served a summons but had no forwarding address doesn't mean the Statute of Limitations is defeated. It shows an effort and it's possible the statue is "tolled" and doesn't run. A summons does not have to be sent via certified mail - check your state statute to see the requirements to be sure. If the summons is years old you may want to see whether a judgment was entered for the case or it was dismissed.

 

[JohnMacek]

i'll assume it was opened in 2001. the SOL doesn't start to run until your last pay/last charge (to put it simply). if you were out of state, in prison, or in some other manner/condition, the SOL may have tolled (been put on pause). there seems to be a lot of "case law" surrounding Wolpoff and Abramson, so i would research the firm. your last charge/last pay date will give you a basic sense of your statutes of limitations.

 

[LawMind]

Not responding won't make this problem go away. In fact depending on the jurisdiction you may have less than 30 days before a default judgment is entered against you and then the nightmare really begins. Consider this for a moment. With a judgment in place the creditor can have your income and/or bank account garnished, can sieze anything of value (like stocks, bonds even your future tax refunds), if you own a business the plaintiff can have a Sherriff's keeper to do what's known as a till tap and take any money that comes in to the business that day to satisfy the judgment. Not to mention the favorite for many judgment seekers, a lien on any Real Estate you own in the county. This is preferred by some because even if you are not ready to pay now, they can sit and let the judgment accrue interest at a rate of 10% (more in some areas) per year. And what's worse is that the judgment can be renewed after 10 years, INDEFINITELY in 10 year increments.

So, with that in mind, I have some good news for you if you want to rid yourself of the agony and embarrassment of possible judgment enforcement procedures. Send me a private email and I can share with you how to get these people off your back once and for all.