Sued over charged off account

My husband and I have a Nations Bank account that was charged off in January 1997. We live in Iowa. We have not heard anything from or about this account since it was charged off four years ago. Today the Sheriff's Deputy served papers on us that we are being sued. The company is a collection agency that bought our charged off account from Nations. This is the first my husband and I have even heard of this company. I have been told that they are suing in hopes that we won't show and they can get a judgment against us. Any advice or suggestions?

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

Originally posted by lrmyers
My husband and I have a Nations Bank account that was charged off in January 1997. We live in Iowa. We have not heard anything from or about this account since it was charged off four years ago. Today the Sheriff's Deputy served papers on us that we are being sued. The company is a collection agency that bought our charged off account from Nations. This is the first my husband and I have even heard of this company. I have been told that they are suing in hopes that we won't show and they can get a judgment against us. Any advice or suggestions?

My response:

Yes, here's a suggestion. You need to defend against the lawsuit. Don't just ignore those papers. See an attorney as soon as possible.

Iowa's Statute of Limitations on written contracts is 5 years. If it was a Credit Card Account, then the Statute of Limitations is 4 years. You better check your records to see what the EXACT last date of payment was that you made.

A charge-off is merely a bookkeeping status; it means that Nations got tired of having the debt on it's books, and sold the debt to someone else. A charge-off doesn't mean that you don't owe the money.

If you lose, you will owe far more than your original debt. The debt now includes 4 years of interest, compounded, and attorney's fees, court costs, etc.

Good luck.

IAAL