Bishop, White & Marshall- anyone have any experience with them?

[95kindebt]

They got a hold of our discover card, now it's been charged off for a month. They have lawyers in the Bar, in the state I'm in.
Just wondering if anyone knows anything about them, and how quick they are?

[BobMango]

Can't really say what they are like but I just got a summons from them on the 15th of October. Date on the summons was Sept 21st. This is on a Chase account for $5K that I last paid on in January of this year. Summons indicates I have 20 days from the date of service to respond.

The summons did not have a number, which as I understand means it has not been filed with the court yet. Waiting to hear back from my attorney but getting ready to send them a notice of appearance and answer. Should be filing Ch7 the first week of November so may not matter, but I don't want to find my bank account mysteriously emptied. I think the only account I paid them from is closed now, but why give them a shot?

[AngelinaCat]

Can't really say what they are like but I just got a summons from them on the 15th of October. Date on the summons was Sept 21st. This is on a Chase account for $5K that I last paid on in January of this year. Summons indicates I have 20 days from the date of service to respond.

The summons did not have a number, which as I understand means it has not been filed with the court yet. Waiting to hear back from my attorney but getting ready to send them a notice of appearance and answer. Should be filing Ch7 the first week of November so may not matter, but I don't want to find my bank account mysteriously emptied. I think the only account I paid them from is closed now, but why give them a shot?

You have to be notified before anyone can touch your bank account for any reason. And prior to that a judgment has to be in place. There is a lot of legal dance steps that have to be done before it gets this far, so if you are planning to file in November, you are more than safe.

Good luck.

[treehugger1]

Be careful here. In some states, the serving of a summons is done prior to filing the case. After service, the plaintiff, or plaintiff's attorney files the case. The date when you were served can be a valid date for you to respond.. You are probably okay if you are filing within a few weeks, but this might be a small claims issue and these can happen quite fast: no response, then immediate judgment. Once the judgment is granted it can take less than a week to get a writ of wage garnishment served on your employer. This depends upon your state and how quickly the plaintiff's attorney keeps up with their cases. In addition, a bank account writ can be ordered and the garnishor can have 14 - 20 days to send you a copy of the writ. I'm lucky in that I get paid once per month and my employer's human resources always gives me a call when they receive the writ.

[95kindebt]

I have 30 days to respond. By Nov 10th. what if I get served? We'd like to hold off on filing until January if possible. Should I send them a DV?

BobMango- Did you get one of these?

I got the "unless you dipute the validity of this debt...." then:

This is to notify you that Discover card has retained this firm to collect it's claim against you for the balance owing on your Discover card account. At tis time, no attorney with this firm has personally reviewed the particular circumstances of your account, and no decision has yet been made as to whethere further action is appropriate. After reading the important notice above, if appropriate, please call our office to resolve this matter. If you agree that you owe this balance, but are unablet o pay in full and would like to make a payment arrangement, you may call this office toll free XXXX ask for J. T.

Then it's signed by an attorney.

[OhioFiler]

I have 30 days to respond. By Nov 10th. what if I get served? We'd like to hold off on filing until January if possible. Should I send them a DV?

BobMango- Did you get one of these?

I got the "unless you dipute the validity of this debt...." then:

This is to notify you that Discover card has retained this firm to collect it's claim against you for the balance owing on your Discover card account. At tis time, no attorney with this firm has personally reviewed the particular circumstances of your account, and no decision has yet been made as to whethere further action is appropriate. After reading the important notice above, if appropriate, please call our office to resolve this matter. If you agree that you owe this balance, but are unablet o pay in full and would like to make a payment arrangement, you may call this office toll free XXXX ask for J. T.

Then it's signed by an attorney.

Send the DV.

[treehugger1]

I agree. It sounds as if you have not received a summons. Send the request for debt verification/validation.Then, see what transpires. Since it is already close to the end of October,, you might not receive a DV response until mid-November. Then, if they decide to file suit it might take them until early-mid December to serve you should they decide to sue. After summons, you will have 14 - 30 days to respond (depending upong the amount of suit, your state laws, etc.) You should be fine until January 1st.

[AngelinaCatHub]

This is a typical form letter. Not to worry they will need months of back and forth days. November is a bit over a week away. 'Hub

[95kindebt]

This is a typical form letter. Not to worry they will need months of back and forth days. November is a bit over a week away. 'Hub

What do you mean they'll need months of back and forth days? What are those?

[treehugger1]

Hub, you are assuming some best-case scenarios. I am going to respectfully disagree.

I recently had a friend who received a dunning letter from one of Discover's hired attorney firms. He DV'd them. Within 30 days he was served. At that point the timing began. And, at that point it all depends upon how much stomach you have, and how much money you have to file an answer in many states. I think there is an urban myth out there that it takes months or years to get a lawsuit through the system. This might be the case in some states, but it is not the norm.

My advice is the same as always. If you stop paying your debt, look to your state laws and local courts for actions against debtors from the plaintiff who has also filed against you. Ask yourself, if in a worst case scenario, if you can live with judgments, etc within the next 30 - 60 days? If not, then file the damned BK papers and get it over with. Never assume that what someone "advises" on some forum will be true in your case. Ask yourself, "What is the worst that can happen, and can I survive this on a short-term (or long-term) basis?"

If you want to know what might happen in your particular case, in your particular state, in your particular county, go down to your local courthouse and do a search for suits filed by, or in the name of, the plaintiff. You'll get some very real insight into what transpires in your locality, irrelevant to what some board forum posters have to say.

Know the enemy. More important, know how the enemy reacts and positions itself on your home ground. DON"T EVER assume that advice from some poster on a web board is anything other than advice.

To the point at hand...Send the DV and wait and see what transpires.

[95kindebt]

treehugger1. Thank you for your advice. This is all new to me. I too, am in Oregon, a suburb of portland. So do I go to the POrtland courthouse and see, or my county courthouse? DO I just walk in and ask? As I said this is all very new to me, and any advice is appreciated.

We'd love to just "file the damned papers" however we need to save some money to pay the attorney first.

Would it be adviseable to just call the company, tell them we have retained an attorney and let them go through him? Perhaps that might slow down the process?

Thank you.

[treehugger1]

95K - It sounds as if you only received a collection letter from the legal firm. If such is the case, then send them a request for debt validation.

It is worth your time to call your county courthouse or make a visit to the courthouse and see if there is any legal action against you. A case would most likely be filed in your county circuit court.

You should know if you get a summons. The top of the summons should state, "In the Circuit Court of Oregon, County of #######," or something like that.

Since this is a Discover account, I have to ask if the legal firm is associated with Mann-Bracken. They do have an office in Portland and they reach far out into southern and eastern oregon.

Send me a private message and I can perhaps share a bit more with you. I currently have a friend being sued by M-B over discover. This person qualified for court fee waiver and filed an answer to the complaint. They waitied until a couple of days of needing to file an answer and then filed one. Now a hearing has been set another 30 days later. First, we need to know if you just have a collection letter or a summons. Discover does sue in Oregon.

It does sound like a collection letter. If such is the case, then send the request for debt verification to the attorney's firm.

[BobMango]

Heard back from my attorney and they advised that since we are filing next week we really have nothing to worry about on my summons as it will all be automatically stayed once we file. I do have to say this firm is a pretty persistent caller. Putting Capitol One to shame.

By the way 95k, to answer your previous question, my first introduction to BW&M was the summons they dropped off, no dunning letters, etc. That's why I think the lawsuit is coming, whether they filed with the court or not. I'm just across the river in Washington (well used to be, now down in New Mexico.)

[95kindebt]

It doesn't say anything about Mann-Bracken. The header is just Bishop, White & Marshall, P.S.
It DOES NOT say "summons" or have any sort of case # with it. Just the discover acct #
I'm heading out of town in an hour, so I'll pm you on sunday night/monday when I get back treehugger. Thanks for the offer.
They haven't even tried to call.
Thanks guys, I'm heading out. Have a great weekend!

[95kindebt]

Just an update I asked our attorney about them and this is partially what he said:

That law firm will likely file a lawsuit within the next 30-60 days if no payment arrangement is made. This is a typical “advance warning” letter and we see a lot of them. If you get sued, and have not yet filed bankruptcy, please forward the lawsuit to us. While I can’t guarantee how much (2-6 weeks average), we can typically buy more time. What you want to avoid s Discover winning the lawsuit by default and getting a judgment against you. A bankruptcy stops that process in its tracks.


They have called twice now, and I think on Tuesday I plan to call them, tell them we have retained an attorney and give them his info. We plan on filing on December 10th. Do you think we'll be "ok"? My theory is hoipefully if I call them back and tell them of our intentions to file, and that we've retained an attorney, that they won't waste therir money filing a suit against us, or they could speed up the process too. I'm hoping and praying. really hard.

What do you think?

Thanks.