Can sending a DV letter to a CA or Attorney trigger a lawsuit / negative action?

[aimhighlow]

Even if you know it is your debt and have no plans to pay(planning BK), can it trigger a lawsuit or negative attention to your account?

If not, wouldn't it be advisable to send a DV letter every time you receive a letter from a CA or attorney(CA's or OC's) to dispute the debt / request for verification and tell them not to harass/call and only communicate in writing, etc.?

And would it make a difference if the account was purchased or assigned?


Thank you in advance

[catleg]

DV, not necessarily. C&D, yes, I would say it automatically accelerates any action that was otherwise going to happen anyway.
C&D says "we're done talking".
DV is a weak version of that.
Cause truly the requirements to satisfy a DV are minimal. (name and address of creditor and balance).

[bcohen]

Sending any kind of letter--or otherwise acknowledging the collector's activities--lets them know they've "got a live one". In other words, they now know that they have valid contact info for the account, so they can serve you with a lawsuit, if desired. On the other hand, if you ignore all of the collection letters and never answer their phone calls (or don't have a phone # that they know about), then the collection agency doesn't know if you even live at the address they are trying to reach you at anymore. Considering how many debtors move, or change their contact info deliberately to dodge collection efforts, the CA may very well move your account to the front of the line for further action once they realize they have valid contact info for you!

I would say that unless you have a bona fide dispute (either with the validity of the debt, or the amount being claimed) then you should not bother sending any dispute letters. If you legitimately owe the debt in the amount claimed, then sending the dispute letter will not stall the CA significantly, and they will simply send a verification letter and continue to hound you for the money!

[IamOld]

Sending any kind of letter--or otherwise acknowledging the collector's activities--lets them know they've "got a live one". In other words, they now know that they have valid contact info for the account, so they can serve you with a lawsuit, if desired. On the other hand, if you ignore all of the collection letters and never answer their phone calls (or don't have a phone # that they know about), then the collection agency doesn't know if you even live at the address they are trying to reach you at anymore. Considering how many debtors move, or change their contact info deliberately to dodge collection efforts, the CA may very well move your account to the front of the line for further action once they realize they have valid contact info for you!

I would say that unless you have a bona fide dispute (either with the validity of the debt, or the amount being claimed) then you should not bother sending any dispute letters. If you legitimately owe the debt in the amount claimed, then sending the dispute letter will not stall the CA significantly, and they will simply send a verification letter and continue to hound you for the money!

C*ap - I just did one for Zwicker - so I'm toast, eh? $1700 and change to Target....

[lillymarlene]

My phone rang constantly from 8:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. 7 days a week starting early 2009. Mostly I never answered it. My caller id was a great investment! Then I used to constantly send out C & D's but only to CA's never the OC's. In the letters I would say that I was only going to deal with the OC. This seemed to delay them, held them off for about a year. Then BOA hired a law firm in my state and delivered me a summons, March 2010. (The pre-trial was sometime in July 2010.)

I didn't know about this forum then, or I probably would have followed bcohen's advice and just quit answering the phone.

[catleg]

I found verizon "call intercept" to be a useful feature. Could block up to 30 numbers. I had a constantly mutating list on a spreadsheet of the top 30. Luckily the major OC's use surprisingly few unique autodialer numbers, and the new ones are easy to spot.

[aimhighlow]

Sending any kind of letter--or otherwise acknowledging the collector's activities--lets them know they've "got a live one". In other words, they now know that they have valid contact info for the account, so they can serve you with a lawsuit, if desired. On the other hand, if you ignore all of the collection letters and never answer their phone calls (or don't have a phone # that they know about), then the collection agency doesn't know if you even live at the address they are trying to reach you at anymore. Considering how many debtors move, or change their contact info deliberately to dodge collection efforts, the CA may very well move your account to the front of the line for further action once they realize they have valid contact info for you!

I would say that unless you have a bona fide dispute (either with the validity of the debt, or the amount being claimed) then you should not bother sending any dispute letters. If you legitimately owe the debt in the amount claimed, then sending the dispute letter will not stall the CA significantly, and they will simply send a verification letter and continue to hound you for the money!

Bcohen, I shared the same thoughts as you with the DV letters initially. However there is a lot of mixed information on whether it is more harmful or helpful (since it seems to be able to do both).

The arguments for sending out DV letters is that they give you more ammunition against the CA/Attorney's such as counter claims and violation lawsuits. I am trying to find out how often does this actually happen where DV letters really help debtors.

On the flipside, I wanted to ask you, do you know how often they actually hurt you? Where they put your file in front of the line for examination and a lawsuit? Where can I find out this information?

[sunshinepa]

Even if you know it is your debt and have no plans to pay(planning BK), can it trigger a lawsuit or negative attention to your account?

If not, wouldn't it be advisable to send a DV letter every time you receive a letter from a CA or attorney(CA's or OC's) to dispute the debt / request for verification and tell them not to harass/call and only communicate in writing, etc.?

And would it make a difference if the account was purchased or assigned?


Thank you in advance

Never can tell. All I can say is, sent CITI lawyer DV letter, got it week later, got the SUMMONS 12 days later.......hmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!

[IamOld]

Never can tell. All I can say is, sent CITI lawyer DV letter, got it week later, got the SUMMONS 12 days later.......hmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!

Ouch. Well, sent (faxed) DV letter to Zwicker last week Friday...for Target...$1700...

[sunshinepa]

Ouch. Well, sent (faxed) DV letter to Zwicker last week Friday...for Target...$1700...

You'll be ok. I knew when I sent the letter I was going to file quickly. Also, this was for 2 citi cards with a total of 37,000 combined so I'm sure they wanted to get me bad. LOL, still hoping no AP will be filed.......have 30 days left.......can't wait for it to pass.

[IamOld]

Fingers crossed for the deadlines!!!!

THANKS for the reply! Am on pins and needles (what else is new) - tomorrow is last date for objections to 13 for spouse

[frogger]

On the flipside, I wanted to ask you, do you know how often they actually hurt you? Where they put your file in front of the line for examination and a lawsuit? Where can I find out this information?

In the past, when you send a c/d to a ca, a person would look at the account to see if you were fodder for a suit. This was at that time, and still is today, a judgment call.

There is now software on the market that uses artificial intelligence to decide if you are a candidate for suit. The software evaluates many factors from your credit report to property ownership to mvr database records.

Then, if it recommends for a suit to be filed, it goes to an attorney where they do the spray and pray method of filing suits.

One attorney, by him/her self, with no additional employees, can now file 3000+ suits per month with the appropriate software, while never leaving the comfort of his/her chair.

[IamOld]

WOnderful. So there is a whole automated system to screw the "little guy."
What is "mvr" incidentally?

And do they think just because you "own" a home you'll be more likely/can more likely pay?

In the past, when you send a c/d to a ca, a person would look at the account to see if you were fodder for a suit. This was at that time, and still is today, a judgment call.

There is now software on the market that uses artificial intelligence to decide if you are a candidate for suit. The software evaluates many factors from your credit report to property ownership to mvr database records.

Then, if it recommends for a suit to be filed, it goes to an attorney where they do the spray and pray method of filing suits.

One attorney, by him/her self, with no additional employees, can now file 3000+ suits per month with the appropriate software, while never leaving the comfort of his/her chair.

[sunshinepa]

I think they figure if you own a home, they can at least get the judgement against the house. If you didn't file BK, they have you when you go to sell your home. And I believe judgements can be "renewed" so to speak.

Also in my case, I owned my car outright, worth about 8,000 so CITI could have come after that and probably recouped the smaller card which had 4200 owed. I was fortunate to be able to file before the suit got off the ground.

[IamOld]

Thanks sunshinepa!!!