challenging or cross-examining an affidavit/affiant

[teerash]

i'm being sued for an old credit card debt in california.
i'm acting as my own counsel, with some background advice from a good debt collection attorney a while back. my current question is pretty simple, so i'm hoping to get it answered here.

there's lots of reasons why the suit is baseless - the plaintiff (credigy receivables) bought the debt from someone else so they can't validate the debt, it's beyond the SOL, they never contacted me before filing the suit, etc, etc. but my question here is fairly specific.

credigy is based in georgia, so they filed an affidavit in lieu of personal testimony for some account rep in georgia. there's lots of holes in his affidavit, he's asserting things he can't possibly know and other things that he can't prove. so i want to question the affiant about those holes to nail them down (and maybe keep the affidavit from being entered into evidence at trial).

at the end of the affidavit it says:
"Pursuant to CCP 98, this affiant is available for service of process: [name and address of evil california law firm suing me], for the 20 days immediately prior to trial."

my trial date is june 19.

so, i now know a little bit about debt collection law, and i looked up section 98 in the california Code of Civil procedure, but i still don't really know what to do next.

i'm assuming this means that i can serve the affiant at the evil law firm's office to depose them, during the 20 days before june 19. BUT
a) what kind of form do i use?
b) can i demand to depose them in person, or do i have to pose questions in writing since they're in georgia? or in a conference call? or what?
basically, how do i cross-examine or depose this witness for my defense?

many thanks for answering.

[CALIF-LAWPRO22]

Originally Posted by teerash

i'm being sued for an old credit card debt in california.
i'm acting as my own counsel, with some background advice from a good debt collection attorney a while back. my current question is pretty simple, so i'm hoping to get it answered here.

there's lots of reasons why the suit is baseless - the plaintiff (credigy receivables) bought the debt from someone else so they can't validate the debt, it's beyond the SOL, they never contacted me before filing the suit, etc, etc. but my question here is fairly specific.

credigy is based in georgia, so they filed an affidavit in lieu of personal testimony for some account rep in georgia. there's lots of holes in his affidavit, he's asserting things he can't possibly know and other things that he can't prove. so i want to question the affiant about those holes to nail them down (and maybe keep the affidavit from being entered into evidence at trial).

at the end of the affidavit it says:
"Pursuant to CCP 98, this affiant is available for service of process: [name and address of evil california law firm suing me], for the 20 days immediately prior to trial."

my trial date is june 19.

so, i now know a little bit about debt collection law, and i looked up section 98 in the california Code of Civil procedure, but i still don't really know what to do next.

i'm assuming this means that i can serve the affiant at the evil law firm's office to depose them, during the 20 days before june 19. BUT
a) what kind of form do i use?
b) can i demand to depose them in person, or do i have to pose questions in writing since they're in georgia? or in a conference call? or what?
basically, how do i cross-examine or depose this witness for my defense?

many thanks for answering.

My response:

I do hope you know, and understand, why you're not receiving any responses.

IAAL

[teerash]

and i only posted an hour ago.

so if i've made some huge error, i apologize and i didn't mean to offend.

that said, feel free to give a longer reply if you wish.

[CALIF-LAWPRO22]

Originally Posted by teerash

and i only posted an hour ago.

so if i've made some huge error, i apologize and i didn't mean to offend.

that said, feel free to give a longer reply if you wish.

My response:

Oh, no. You didn't do anything to "offend." Gosh, least of all me!

The reason, however, why you're not going to receive any responses is that you're basically asking, "Can you teach me law - - perhaps put me through law school?"

Because, that's what it would practically take to answer all of your questions, with a discussion on an Internet site of all of the ins and outs.

Good luck to you. And, if you can afford one, seek the advice of local counsel. Otherwise, try a law library.

IAAL

[teerash]

for asking for free legal advice.

i really think what i'm asking is just a simple technical question about 'service of process' on an affiant. is that so complicated? i know what questions i want to ask and what points to make, so when i ask 'how do i cross-examine' all i really mean is 'how do i properly file this?'

i dunno, i see more complicated discussions all over this forum.
i don't think i see you in any of them, though.
maybe that's the problem.
but thanks for your opinion anyway.

anyone else who actually wants to discuss this matter, please feel free to, thanks.

[Shay-Pari'e]

[quote=teerash]i'm being sued for an old credit card debt in california.
i'm acting as my own counsel, with some background advice from a good debt collection attorney a while back. my current question is pretty simple, so i'm hoping to get it answered here.

there's lots of reasons why the suit is baseless - You honestly feel the suit is baseless? the plaintiff (credigy receivables) bought the debt from someone else so they can't validate the debt, it's beyond the SOL, If they bought the deabt, what makes you think they cannot validate it? So basically you have been playing this game for a while, to state your debts are beyond the SOL.

they never contacted me before filing the suit, etc, etc. but my question here is fairly specific.

credigy is based in georgia, so they filed an affidavit in lieu of personal testimony for some account rep in georgia. there's lots of holes in his affidavit, he's asserting things he can't possibly know and other things that he can't prove. so i want to question the affiant about those holes to nail them down (and maybe keep the affidavit from being entered into evidence at trial).

at the end of the affidavit it says:
"Pursuant to CCP 98, this affiant is available for service of process: [name and address of evil california law firm suing me], for the 20 days immediately prior to trial."

my trial date is june 19.

so, i now know a little bit about debt collection law, and i looked up section 98 in the california Code of Civil procedure, but i still don't really know what to do next.

i'm assuming this means that i can serve the affiant at the evil law firm's office to depose them, during the 20 days before june 19. BUT
a) what kind of form do i use?
b) can i demand to depose them in person, or do i have to pose questions in writing since they're in georgia? or in a conference call? or what?
basically, how do i cross-examine or depose this witness for my defense?

many thanks for answering.

Are you for real? Your assumption is so off base.

[teerash]

i really didn't realize i needed to pass so many smell tests just to get a question answered.

but, ok.

i know credigy can't validate the debt because they said so in the complaint they filed in august 2005. they said, since the debt originated with the credit card company and they don't have access to those records, they cannot verify or validate the debt. if you ask me to, i can quote from their filing.

the affidavit i just received similarly has no documentation of the original debt, just a lot of statements of years of interest charges. again, they admit that they cannot locate the documentation of the debt.

i'm certain about the SOL because the credit card account was closed in december 2000, with no activity after that, just interest charges. whether you start the SOL clock with the last payment or with the date the account was last open and usable, either way, that's more than four years before they filed suit.

now, am i any closer to getting to the discussion i was asking about?
many thanks.

[teerash]

i think i'm going to move to strike the affidavit.

feel free to suggest alternatives.

thanks.