Anyone familiar with SSRA in regards to debt collections?

[kabal57]

What is the name of your state? CA

Ok, here's my problem, I searched but couldnt really find anything similar to my situation.
back in 05 I was hit with an intent to sue from Wolpoff & Abramson ( I was in Iraq at the time)
they got a default settlement in 06, however it is not posted on any of my CR's.

I went to the courthouse today to get all the paperwork, and it appears the W&A attorney filed a false affidavit.
There is a section on the judgment request that asks is the defendant in the military..
possible answers are :
1. No, not in the military
2. Unable to determine if defendant is in the military
3. Defendant is in the military

If 2 or 3 are picked, the judgment stops right there.. it cannot go any further until counsel is appointed for the defendant, so no automatic default judgment. However the W&A attorney just put no I was not, and as far as I can tell, they never attempted to determine if I was in the military or not.

They could have and should have answered that question with #2, Unable to determine..
So it looks like a pretty cut and dried case of perjury to me.
I'm guessing they figured since I did not show for the initial summons, etc. that I wouldn't look at the judgment and just pay it..
Anyone have any advice on how I should proceed on this? I have been in contact with JAG but the guy I talked to is pretty clueless when it comes to consumer law...
help?

[Chien]

I infer from the fact that you discussed this with the JAG officer that you’re still in the service. I also infer that the suit was filed and judgment entered in CA.

Before jumping to accusations of perjury, let’s start with “simple error” because they never spoke to you.

You have ample basis to vacate the judgment but, in CA, you’ll have to respond to the original Complaint when you do. That will start litigation moving again and, while the 4-year SOL may now appear to have run, it didn’t, if the suit was timely when filed. Your service status tolled the running.

If you were in the service at all times, that status affected the interest accrual and lowered it from any statutory or contractual rate (it’s 10% post-judgment in CA) to 6%.

Beyond all that, you haven’t posted anything yet that just makes the obligation disappear entirely, so you should think about that as you proceed and plan on talking to JAG again as you do.

For information on vacating the judgment, depending on additional details omitted from your post, look at Calif. Code of Civil Procedure sect. 473 and 473.5. You can find those here:
[url]http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html[/url]

An alternative might be to talk to W&A, let them know they they’re going to be starting over and see if you can negotiate some settlement resolution. (If you’re career military, it’s a PITA to try to take and enforce a judgment.)