Creditor won case without a summons

[KMac74]

What is the name of your state? Maryland

Hello, First let me give some background:

I am a 32 yr old, full time college student. I've been trying to resolve my past credit issues and it's going as good as it can be. I do have some outstanding debts that I am still working to eliminate.

The main point of this message is one of my creditors - CitiFinancial.
The account has been charged off a couple of times. And each new recovery firm sends me numerous "Let us help you pay this off" letters and I have been through many phone conversations with them. Everytime I talk to them they request ridiculous payments that are way out of my income. So I tell them what I can afford, and of course thats not good enough for them. So after much frustration I have given up.

About a week ago I received a letter from the State of Maryland District Court, stating that the case of "CitiFinancial vs. Kevin Xxxx" has been ruled in favor of the Plaintiff. I didn't receive any notice about this till this letter. No summons of any kind: Hand delivered or mail. And now they can garnish my wages if I don't pay the full amount with attorney fees and court costs.

What do I do? Is there any action I can take?

[seniorjudge]

Originally Posted by KMac74

What is the name of your state? Maryland

Hello, First let me give some background:

I am a 32 yr old, full time college student. I've been trying to resolve my past credit issues and it's going as good as it can be. I do have some outstanding debts that I am still working to eliminate.

The main point of this message is one of my creditors - CitiFinancial.
The account has been charged off a couple of times. And each new recovery firm sends me numerous "Let us help you pay this off" letters and I have been through many phone conversations with them. Everytime I talk to them they request ridiculous payments that are way out of my income. So I tell them what I can afford, and of course thats not good enough for them. So after much frustration I have given up.

About a week ago I received a letter from the State of Maryland District Court, stating that the case of "CitiFinancial vs. Kevin Xxxx" has been ruled in favor of the Plaintiff. I didn't receive any notice about this till this letter. No summons of any kind: Hand delivered or mail. And now they can garnish my wages if I don't pay the full amount with attorney fees and court costs.

What do I do? Is there any action I can take?

Go to the courthouse and check out this file to make sure they really got a judgment and how they got service on you.

After you do that, post back with results.

[Ladynred]

The account has been charged off a couple of times.

No it hasn't. Charge-off only happens ONCE and it's done by the ORIGINAL creditor only.

How long ago did you pay the ORIGINAL creditor, the last payment ??

As SJ said, go to the courthouse and ask the court clerk for a copy of the judgment case file. In it should be a proof of service affidavit stating when, where, how and to whom the summons was served. If the service can be proven to be defective, then you can certainly appeal the judgment and possibly get it set aside.

Who is the last collection agency/junk debt buyer to have this, the ones who probably sued you ? Some are known to deliberately serve a summons at ancient or bogus addresses just so they can win a no-fight default judgment against you.