What should I do? Re: Getting served

[vegemily]

Thanks. The sheriff didn't call me back yet anyway. weird. I'm going to the lawyer soon so I will ask about it there.

[treehugger1]

I disagree with "rich." But then again, I know that each state is different. In many states, purposefully avoiding service can harm you in the end. In your case the sheriff's department actually left a note on your door. Unless you can prove the address is not yours, then you could (in the future) come up against a judge who will raise BOTH eyebrows.

Personally, I have more than once been contacted by the sheriff's office. I have always called them and made arrangements to pick up any summons. In my county, as is probably the case across the country, the majority of the time the sheriff's office is quite gracious. If you are "hiding" from a debt you know is yours, what do you hope to gain by ignoring your ultimate fate; lawsuit or bankruptcy? Embrace it. Meet this head on. You have nothing to fear.

[RichM]

I disagree with "rich." But then again, I know that each state is different. In many states, purposefully avoiding service can harm you in the end. In your case the sheriff's department actually left a note on your door. Unless you can prove the address is not yours, then you could (in the future) come up against a judge who will raise BOTH eyebrows.

Personally, I have more than once been contacted by the sheriff's office. I have always called them and made arrangements to pick up any summons. In my county, as is probably the case across the country, the majority of the time the sheriff's office is quite gracious. If you are "hiding" from a debt you know is yours, what do you hope to gain by ignoring your ultimate fate; lawsuit or bankruptcy? Embrace it. Meet this head on. You have nothing to fear.

No one's avoiding anything, treehugger. My advice was to let the lawyer deal with it. That's what he/she is being paid to do.

Eventually the summons will have to be served, of course. But why provide the process server with a cell number that almost certainly will get back to the collector that's suing the respondent, and from there to the CRAs and whatever other networks and databases bill collectors use to obtain up-to-date numbers?

It's much better to have the lawyer call the process server (or the deputy sheriff, who in this case would be no more than a glorified process server anyway) and provide the attorney's office number as a contact. The lawyer can also arrange to accept the summons on behalf of the respondent, if he or she wishes to do so, in most jurisdictions. Avoiding service of process is illegal. Having your attorney do his or her job is not.

As for the rest, there is no law anywhere that requires that a person answer their phone. Yes, creditors have a right to call you (unless you have retained an attorney and advised them of that fact). But no, you are under no legal obligation to talk to them, nor their representatives, nor their process servers, nor anyone else acting on their behalf.

When debt collectors used to call me, before I got the Magic Jack number, I used to make them nuts. I would listen to their spiel, ask questions about it, finally declare that I understood it, and then talk about anything except my debts. They would ask me when I planned to pay, and I would talk about how the Mets or Yankees won the previous night's baseball game. They would tell me they had the right to take me to court, and I would talk about how great a job my surgeon did removing my gall bladder. They would say, "Mr. M., this is not a joke." I would reply, "No, but this is," and then proceed to tell one.

Was I wrong? Considering that they were breaking the law by calling me, anyway (as I'd already advised them that I'd retained counsel), I'd say anything I did to waste their time was fair play -- and the more of it I wasted, the better I liked it.

Once I got the Magic Jack, however, things got even better. Why? Because when you don't answer a Magic Jack call, the call goes to voice mail, and the audio file is sent to you as an email attachment. That's a wonderful thing! It allows you to forward actual audio of all the bill collectors' threatening and harassing calls right to your attorney's inbox. Bill collectors are so arrogant that they break the law on the record, even when they know they're being recorded -- and they give their names and phone numbers, besides. It's truly astounding.

One call was a real doozy. The collector left a recording in which he said something very much like, "And don't think [my attorney's name] will get you out of this one! I've been dealing with him for years, and he's an asswipe! I've beat him before, and I'll beat him again." I forwarded the message to my attorney, who was not at all amused. Suffice it to say that collector never called me again.

Anyway, back to the point, directing collectors, process servers, deputy sheriffs, or anyone else representing your adversary's interests to your attorney is not "avoiding" anything. Dealing with our adversaries is precisely what we pay lawyers to do.

-Rich

[treehugger1]

Hmmm, I guess I missed the statement from the original poster that he/she had actually retained an attorney to help them with their financial affairs. My apology if the poster had/has actually retained an attorney to represent them in their financial matters; bankruptcy or otherwise.

[WhatMoney]

The OP only consulted with a lawyer, probably a free BK consultation. She has not hired one yet from reading her post. If she does have an attorney then he/she would be the one to ask for advice, not some Internet forum. It's stupid to avoid a summons from the sheriff's office. She could just drive to the sheriff's office and pick up the summons - no need to give them her "secret" cell phone number.

[RichM]

Maybe I jumped the gun by assuming she'd retained counsel. But the OP did say, "I have consulted with an attorney and have a follow up appointment tomorrow." I don't know too many attorneys who give more than one free consult session, but hey, maybe that's just here in New York.

One way or the other, however, it does mean that she had an appointment with a lawyer the next day; and the one thing my attorney beat into me from the start was not to talk to anyone on the other side about my debts. No banks, no collectors, no process servers, no one. I was to call him instead. (He didn't, however, say I couldn't talk to them about the Yankee game or my gall bladder surgery. )

But if I jumped the gun by assuming that the OP had retained counsel, then I apologize.

-Rich

[frogger]

Was I wrong? Considering that they were breaking the law by calling me, anyway (as I'd already advised them that I'd retained counsel), I'd say anything I did to waste their time was fair play -- and the more of it I wasted, the better I liked it.

-Rich

"Retaining counsel" is far different than filing bk. You only have protection from creditors after you file for bk, so there was no laws broken by your creditors.

[RichM]

"Retaining counsel" is far different than filing bk. You only have protection from creditors after you file for bk, so there was no laws broken by your creditors.

I respectfully beg to differ. Read Section 805(a)(2) of the FDCPA, which prohibits creditors from directly contacting a debtor:

"...if the debt collector knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with respect to such debt and has knowledge of, or can readily ascertain, such attorney's name and address, unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to a communication from the debt collector or unless the attorney consents to direct communication with the consumer."

That's the law. Once you tell creditors that you have retained an attorney, even if you haven't yet filed BK, the creditors are required by law to cease communication with you.

What you're referring to is different. Creditors don't have to cease collection efforts until you file BK. But once you've retained counsel, they have to direct those collection efforts to your attorney rather than to you. Once you file, then they have to cease collection altogether.

-Rich

[frogger]

unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to a communication from the debt collector

And there is the loophole that the collector uses.

Define "reasonable"

[vegemily]

OK, so I met with the lawyer and told him about the card on my door. And gave him the info. The sheriff to this day hasn't called me back.
But, then I got a letter from the courthouse in the mail. It was Citibank. I don't really understand the letter. The top says it's a notice of juge assignment- arbitration. The only dates the letter mentions is a 6 month discovery period. I'm going to call the lawyer I guess. I guess he's retained I mean I started paying him with the intent to file.

[jmac]

Had this happen to me a few months ago, i was trying to get a good 6 month look back on my pay but they forced me to file before i wanted too...My lawyer told me to throw it away it will be a least 60 days before they can do anything....I waited almost 60 days after being served before i filed....

[vegemily]

My lawyer basically said to ignore it as well. He wants me to file before any judgements are entered. I wanted to wait to put more time between my cc use but things didn't work out...

[lillymarlene]

Hi, I agree with RichM here. The first call should be to your attorney. The same thing kind of happened to me. Back about 4 months ago, I came home to a summons taped to my door from a law firm representing Bank of America. Then a month after that I got another summons for Capital One. I went to the small claims court for the "pre-trial" for the first one, and the judge wanted me to come back for that lawsuit and the second one on the same day! The only good thing that came out of that was it kind of lit a fire under me to hurry up and get legal representation, to pick somebody out of the handful I'd interviewed.

Then my attorney had me bring a couple of letters of "suggestion of bankruptcy" to the court. Then, the suits were dropped. So, that's the first thing I would do is get some legal representation.