Asset Acceptance Letter

[ms.scarlet]

What is the name of your state? Florida
I just received a letter of complaint from the county clerks office stating that Asset Acceptance is filing a suit against me for a credit card collections I'm not sure it is even mine. I do not reconize the original merchants' name and it's for over $9,000. What more is it's states the card was in use up to 8/2002. I didn't have any credit cards in 2002 at all. From Nov. 2001 to Jan. 2002, all creditors were contacted about my lost job status and I wanted all credit cards accounts closed, and would make arrangements as I could.

The letter says I have 20 days to file a response. Does this response have to be a particular legal form or can I just write something myself asking for proof that this debt is or isn't mine. I don't really know where to go with this.

Thank you for your help

[Chien]

As far as the response having to be in any special form, courts do tend to be liberal about form and "legalese" with pro se/pro per defendants (rough translation = doing it yourself, without an attorney). But you do have to respond to the court within the allotted time or you'll risk a default judgment against you, so do that first. Many courts sell forms for a few cents that you can use. Check with your court and see if you can get a "General Denial". With that on file, you can start looking into the "wrong party" question. Writing a letter to the creditor or the Court isn't enough, BUT you can try CALLING the attorney. IF you convince them that there's a mistake AND IF they agree to dismiss the case against you AND IF you get a copy of their FILED dismissal in less then the allotted time, you can stop worrying about the Court. With ANYTHING LESS, you must respond. If you can't get what you need from the Court, contact local legal aid or the state Bar Association and see if they can provide you with attorney referrals for free or low-cost representation or assistance.

Once you've handled your responsibilities with the Court, then you can look into the question of the card not being yours. It's possible that you won't get much help from the attorney, particularly until you've responded to the Court. When you repond, include a request for "fees and costs of defense" (if there's a court form, that may be included). Then, if you prove there has been a mistake and you win the litigation, you have a right to recover most of your expenses. Nobody wants to sue the wrong party or allege mistaken information, but I suspect that you'll have a better chance of getting the attorney to respond to you once you've prevented a default judgment. Doing so also gets you more time than the 20 days to investigate on your own.

[flatpanel]

Originally Posted by ms.scarlet

What is the name of your state? Florida
I just received a letter of complaint from the county clerks office stating that Asset Acceptance is filing a suit against me for a credit card collections I'm not sure it is even mine. I do not reconize the original merchants' name and it's for over $9,000. What more is it's states the card was in use up to 8/2002. I didn't have any credit cards in 2002 at all. From Nov. 2001 to Jan. 2002, all creditors were contacted about my lost job status and I wanted all credit cards accounts closed, and would make arrangements as I could.

The letter says I have 20 days to file a response. Does this response have to be a particular legal form or can I just write something myself asking for proof that this debt is or isn't mine. I don't really know where to go with this.

Thank you for your help

Ms. Scarlet,
Asset Acceptance is not Rhett Butler calling, so frankly you will need to give a damn on this matter.
Asset Acceptance is trying to take at least $9000 of your money and they will if you default on their lawsuit against you.
Asset Acceptance is a junk debt buyer, which buys bad debts for 2 cents on the dollar and moves to collect face value and and tons of high-interest rate debt padding interest.
That's a 5000% to 10000% return on investment which is a far greater return than us little people get on our investments.
Asset Acceptance is a greedy debt profiteer.
Apparently, you have been sued in a civil action by Asset.
You do not mention that you were served with process by a process server, but, FL law requires that the summons and complaint be personally served on you. A clerk of the court can't serve you by mailing you a letter.
Did a process server personally deliver to you the summons and complaint?
If not, a motion to quash is a defense motion under Rule 1.140(b) that you could file that would stop the running of the 20 day clock on filing an answer to the complaint, to have the court adjudicate the issue of personal jurisdiction over you for this case, if service of the original process was not compliant with statute.
I suggest that you file a motion for time enlargement with the court identified in the header of the complaint, under Florida Rules of Civil Procedure rule 1.090(b)(1) requesting 60 days to file your answer since you have no legal background and you need time to search for an attorney and time to research the complaint to be able to competently answer it.
You need to do an internet search on "Florida Rules of Civil Procedure" and start reading these rules because you will need to understand how they work since these are the rules the court and you are operating under in this litigation.
Here are some defenses that you must include in your answer: Barred by Statute of Limitations, Lack of Privity, Lack of Bona Fide Assignment.
Just because you closed an account, does not mean that any outstanding balance on the account would not be subject to collection if you failed to pay off the balance.
You will need to carefully examine the theories of recovery stated in the complaint, such as breach of contract, open account, account stated, to add additional legal theory specific defenses to your answer.
You will need to examine the declared evidence exhibits in the complaint and the "probative value" of them as to your liability for the plaintiff's claim.
If you have money and can afford a lawyer, contact the lawyer referral service if you don't know a lawyer that can help you.
If you don't have money, you can contact the legal aid society.
You can also provide details of your case here, since there are knowledgeable people here who know FL law that can help you.

[Chien]

OP -
You don't need to do a search for the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure. Here's a link. Start reading:
[URL="http://phonl.com/fl_law/rules/frcp/"]http://phonl.com/fl_law/rules/frcp/[/URL]

Now reasonble minds can differ on a subject. It has happened here. flatpanel is right and so am I. I have no vested interest in the course of action that you follow, so I'll explain a few more things and you can choose your options.

What turns out to be good service of process gets described in many strange ways in this forum. We both start with the assumption that you have been sued:

"Apparently, you have been sued in a civil action by Asset."

But flatpanel correctly considers the possibility that service was defective and, if so, encourages you to consider a Motion to Quash.
Assuming that you understand and know how to do that, I consider it a way to buy some time (at the price of work, a filing fee and a court appearance) but otherwise useless. If I were the plaintiff's atorney and thought that there was even a remote possibility that service was defective, I would file my opposition, go to the hearing on the motion and, if th Court found defect, immediately have you re-served while standing in the courtroom - problem solved.

A motion for time enlargement is discretionary with the Court and requires a finding of good cause. If you understand what that means, want the additional time, can do the work and make the court appearance, do it. For a defendant who is presently pro se, it's likely that the Court would allow additional time. How will you use it? To prepare to defend the case yourself or to find an attorney? My thought is that, if your plan is to roll procedural beer kegs in front of the plaintiff, kegs that it will eventually step over, go get the attorney now. Let him/her do the work. You will be in over your head at each step of the proceedings.

And about those procedural beer kegs - understand that, when motions are opposed, the opposition normally requests the award of fees and expenses, if it prevails. If you're doing this yourself, you want to be sure that you are knowledgable and that your motions are viable, or it could be costing you just to protract the inevitable.

As to the defenses that you include in your answer, you can use those suggested by flatpanel and a dozen more. You can simply deny the allegations of the Complaint or you can also simply allege that the Complaint "fails to state a cause of action". The thing about defenses is that they are largely window dressing unless you can prove one or more and use that proof to dispose of the case or win at trial. At this point, flatpanel necessarily assumes that you can do this and, (with due respect) I assume that you cannot design discovery that will help you, without the assistance of an attorney. If you're going to get an attorney, my thinking is to skip the procedural bow and curtsey and do it now.

If you stopped using cards in 2002, the debt isn't time-barred. If you signed a credit card application, there's privity of contract and Asset will be able to prove a valid assignment or they wouldn't sue in the first place. They're too big to be that stupid.

"You will need to carefully examine the theories of recovery stated in the complaint, such as breach of contract, open account, account stated, to add additional legal theory specific defenses to your answer.
You will need to examine the declared evidence exhibits in the complaint and the "probative value" of them as to your liability for the plaintiff's claim."

If you understand exactly what that means, you don't need an attorney. If you don't understand, you do.

So here are the options:
flatpanel's advice assumes that you are going to defend this action, possibly through trial. If you win, you win. If you lose, you have a judgment for $9K plus costs and your attorney's fees, if you get an attorney.
My advice suggests that you protect your rear end as quickly and inexpensively as possible and then figure out if this is really a debt that you owe. If it's a debt that you owe, get to work on trying to get it paid without wasting money on litigation you'll lose.
The third, and probably best option is to pay to consult with a local attorney for an hour and get his/her advice on what to do with what you have in hand.