Question on being sued...

What is the name of your state? NJ

Is there any way to find out if one is being sued before one gets a notice? I mean if someone has filed a suit against you and you havent received a notice yet, is there a place you can look up and find out? Can a lawyer find this out?

The reason I ask is: Sometime ago a collection agency was writing to me claiming I owed a company 8000 dollars. I disputed it. They put it on my credit report but I disputed that with the CRA and had it removed. But the CA still threatened to sue me.

This was over three months ago. Havent heard anything after that. I was just wondering whether they were just talking big or whether they might have filed suit with a previous address of mine in order to get a default judgement.

Hope this doesnt sound too paranoid. Thanks for any help.

[Ladynred]

The easiest thing to do is to call the courthouse in the county where you are now, or where you were (if its different) and ask if any suits have been filed against you. If there have been, then you can ask for a copy of the case file and the proof of service (it a summons has been issued/served yet).

SOL on cc's is 6 years in NJ.. are you past that ?

Poster, you're not paranoid. In fact, this is the exact thing that's happened to others on here, and the thing that I'm afraid of myself. You were very conscientious to think of that as a possibility and ask

LadynRed: I presume by cc you mean credit card debt. Well this is not a credit card debt.

I dont have much details from the CA (they wont furnish any documentation despite 2 letters certified RRR). This is supposed to have been a purchase of vending machines in 1998 and assigned to CA in 2001! Whats the NJ SOL on this type of transaction.

The CA and original creditor are in Iowa, I am in NJ and the transaction is supposed to have happened in Philadephia.
Should I check all 3 courthouses?

I presume this is a case of identity theft. For what it's worth I've file a police report, complained to the FTC, complained to the AGs office in NJ and IA and of course (successfully) disputed it out of my credit record. I dont know if there is anything else I can do.

Kevin thanks for your support.

Interesting.
The vending machine issue is going to have to be up to you to figure out. If you signed a contract and are still bound by it, that would be an entirely different SOL than a simple sale or credit plan.
As far as the identity theft... If you send the collection agency validation letters and don't get responses after the time period you've allowed, and they are still harassing you, then they don't HAVE the proof. They're trying to mitigate their losses by collecting debts from fourth or fifth parties. RMA is scummy.
If you haven't received responses on your previous attempts to validate, send a cease and desist letter to them detailing the fact that you believe it is ID theft, you've received no validation, and you have no recollection of this account. Then you're done with them. Wait for them to sell the balance to another collection agency, and start the fun again. Validate twice, C&D. That easy.

I have never signed any contract of this nature. I dont know what they are talking about! This is why I presume that someone could have stolen my identity.

Oh, I see.
They probably either have you confused with someone else or you are indeed involved in identity theft. In either case, send a cease and desist letter with the explanation of your stolen identity or records mix-up on their part. You don't owe them even that much of an explanation, but it might get them to clear it up. Not likely, but you never know

Thanks Kevin.

My feeling is that if they couldnt validate my supposed debt to the CRA then its not likely that they would be pursue this in court. Altho, that begs the question as to why they reported this to the CRA in the first place (after all doesnt that open them up to liability themselves?)

Anyway I will check with the courthouse as LadynRed suggested.

Thanks again.

Yes that does open them up to ilability.
If you disputed the debt, and have proof that it's on your report and not marked (in dispute), AFTER your dispute, you have a case.
If they just put it on there before the dispute and didn't take it off, they have liability.
If they put it on there, received your dispute, took it off, and continued to call you... they don't have any liability.
This one's a pretty cut-and-dry example of bad debt collection. Get your facts straight in a timeline (with evidence) and see what does or doesn't match up.