Court Summons for Debt NOT owed due to Identity Theft

[cb212]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

Hi All,

Thank you in advance for reading this question. This is something an older relative is dealing with, and I am helping her since she is unable to seek help on her own. I've done an extensive search online for this, but in most cases the debt is valid . The case here is that the debt is a fraudulent account opened using her identity. Unfortunately, she did not take this seriously until she received a court summons in her county (in NY) on behalf of a law firm in NY. Is there anyway around this since it's identity theft? Can we send a letter or such without having to file an answer etc? We have removed several accounts from one credit report, and are now awaiting the other 2 credit bureaus to send a report and see if there are anymore fraudulent accounts. As of now, we have not seen this debt on her credit report. I believe this debt is about 3-4 years old.

Also, within a few days of the court summons she received a letter saying they'd like to entertain an offer to settle. Does this mean we can just send a letter and ignore the summons?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Texas Pooh]

Absolutely do not ignore the summons. You need to file a written answer denying the debt. Send it to the attorney for the creditor.

Show up for every court date.

You are going to have to send some discovery, which will require the creditor to prove up that this debt is your relative's, and not yours. If you don't want to engage a lawyer to assist you, you can get some books from the library or a book store (others on this site recommend NOLO press) to guide you through the process.

To the extent you have some paperwork demonstrating the identity theft - like a police report- you should also send that to the attorney so they know what your position will be.