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Responding to a Credit Card Lawsuit When a lawsuit is filed in the Court of Common Pleas you as the defendant have 20 days to get a written response filed with the court. The initial written response to the lawsuit is crucial, so please heed the following advice. There are generally two choices when responding:…
We get calls every day asking us to negotiate debt. For some people, paying debt is a good idea. For others, its not such a good idea. Most people do not realize the nature of debt. The typical phone call goes like this…”Attorney Artim, I have a debt with Chase that I’d like to…
We’ve had lots of calls over the last few weeks asking about a Writ of Execution. Can I hire you? Why didn’t they give me notice? What can be done? These are some of the frequent questions that we get regarding Writs of Execution. What is a Writ of Execution? A Writ of Execution…
LVNV Funding is a junk debt buyer that we deal with on a daily basis. They fell under the radar for a few years and now are making a big comeback. We’ve seen hundreds of LVNV cases being filed across western Pennsylvania in the last few months. Below, we’ll talk about the 5 steps…
Facing a credit card lawsuit? Please don’t panic. Follow these easy steps and you’ll obtain a great result almost every time. Step 1 – Take a few minutes to actually read the lawsuit. See if they have sued the correct person, see if you can recognize the account that they are suing on. Step 2…
We’re getting lots of cases from Cavalry SPV. These cases are being filed in District Justice Court and the Court of Common Pleas. In most instances, Cavalry is being represented by the fine attorneys at Apothaker Scian. You’ve never had an account with Cavalry, you’ve never had a contract with them, they’ve never lent…
The mailman knocks at the door. You answer and he says “sign this please”. Hesitating, you sign the green card. Its a letter from your local District Justice. You open it to find that you are being sued by Midland Funding, LLC (or it’s alter ego Midland Credit Management). Who in the world…
We’ve had a number of calls over the last few weeks from people who think they are being sued with a new lawsuit. As the consultation goes on, the client inevitably says “I was sued for this claim years ago”. At that point, we need to take a look at the docket and at the…
The bulk of our caseload at Artim Law is defending individuals who are sued by collection agencies. We see lawsuits from Cavalry, LVNV Funding, Midland Funding and Portfolio Recovery Associates every day. These guys are the large debt buyers and it appears that they’ve swallowed all of the smaller debt buyers. Every now and again,…
We’ve received many inquiries this week about negotiating with debt collectors. Let’s get right to it… if you are sued by a debt collector, or even if you’ve received a phone call or a letter from them, you SHOULD NOT negotiate with them by yourself. I’m not saying that negotiation is a bad idea,…
Years ago, you were sued. You lost, either because you didn’t properly defend yourself and allowed a default judgment to be entered, or, because you didn’t hire an attorney. Now years later the collector is trying to enforce the judgment and is demanding that you pay. Or, you’re trying to buy a new home and…
Apparently, its bank account garnishment week here in Pennsylvania. We’ve been inundated with calls from consumers who have had their bank accounts garnished. In some cases, the consumer didn’t even realize that they had been sued. We’ll be attacking the judgments on those ones for sure. In many cases, however, the consumer did realize…
For today’s blog post I want to talk about some general collection issues and terms that we get asked about quite often. Let’s start with the Statute of Limitations. The Statute of Limitations (SOL) for credit card debt in Pennsylvania is 4 years (3 years on some cases). Well, 4 years from when, exactly? The…
What in the world is a Deposition in Aid of Execution? Why am I receiving this? Did I get sued? These are the hot questions of the day. We receive at least one of these calls every day at our office and sometimes its up to 6-7 calls per day. If you’ve received a notice…
We get many calls about judgments and Statute of Limitations in Pennsylvania. Most people say “the judgment is over 5 years old, so why are they still trying to collect?” The error there is the mixed combination of legal theories. A statute of limitations applies to the amount of time that a creditor…
Well, for the 5th time in the last 7 days I’ve had a new client inquiry where the individual has been representing themselves in a credit card lawsuit. The common scenario is this…Debt buyer sues person. Person goes on internet and googles what to do. Google tells them to file an “answer” so they do…
At our office, for most consumer claims we offer a free initial consultation (we do charge for federal student loan consultations). We do this as a courtesy to our potential clients. As a consumer law firm, we are most often dealing with a consumer who is being harassed by a debt collection agency ( or…
Today’s blog post is about choosing the right attorney. I have had several strange occurrences in the last few weeks when consulting with potential new clients and it boggles my mind. A few weeks ago, a lady called my office saying that she was sued by Portfolio Recovery Associates. She was in a complete panic…