Old lady served an information subpoena

[butana12]

What is the name of your state? New York

My 70 year old mom's identity was stolen and she was sued by a bank for a $60,000 bad loan. Under free advise from a friend's lawyer friend, since my mom has no money or assets, no need to worry, just ignore all the letters and do nothing, there's no criminal charge involved, just judgement against her.
My mother lives on a low monthly social security check so she followed the advise and did not repsond to anything, including court apperance.
Now a default judgement is entered against her and she recieved an information subpoena which also passed the 7 day due day to reply.
Now, is she in contempt with the court? What does that mean? What will happen to her next now the due day is passed? What kind of trouble is she in if she keeps on doing nothing?
As long as there's no jail time involved, my mom is okay with a judgement or ruined credit because she is old, does not speak any English and can't afford to fight this case. Now with this information subpoena pass due, is it too late or should she start getting help right away?

[BL]

Try contact your local Office of Attorney general and find out what to do about identity theft .

Generally speaking , information subpoenas provide for penalty for not responding .

I sent out one myself once , and it was not answered . Nothing was done to the defendant when I brought it up in court .

[Debt Guy]

In my opinion, your mom should respond to the information subpoena. It is just questions and not hard to answer. If the friend's friend's lawyer was right, then there is no risk to her in answering.

For the sum of $60,000 the creditor will be aggressive on this. If mom does not answer, then it is possible she will be ordered to appear in person. If she ignores that, the judge can issue an arrest warrant. It is very unlikely she would be arrested but why put her to that risk?

I think the original advice was not good advice. But, it is done and not a lot you can do about it now. I don't think there is much she can do about the identity theft.'

Read over the information subpoena and answer the questions. Post back if any of the questions trouble you.

[BL]

I don't think there is much she can do about the identity theft.'

Not much a victim can do ?

[url]http://www.oag.state.ny.us/consumer/tips/id_theft_victim.html[/url]

[butana12]

BL & Debt Guy,
Thanks a lot for the info!
Like you said, what's done is done, there's nothing my mom can do now. As long as no one is gonna coming knocking on her door and arrest her, I don't think she wants to do anything but it sounds like she should at least respond to the infomation subpoena. Hope it's not too late because the 7 day deadline to respond has already past.

[Texas Pooh]

OP,

You really need to encourage Mom to respond to the subpoena. While there are never criminal penalties for failing to pay your debt, there can be criminal penalties for failing to respond to requests for information, particularly if its done more than once, and particularly post-judgment. We don't need Mom in a position where the Court is holding her in contempt.

In addition, you should try and call the attorney for the creditor and let them know the whole story. The lawyer certainly won't believe you on the first try, but you should keep trying to get through. Send a certified letter with whatever proof you have of the identity theft. It may not stop the attempts at collection, but it will be helpful for you to tell the Court you've tried to let the other side know what the issues are.

As suggested, the answers to the asset questions are easy, and we're here to help.

[Debt Guy]

Not much a victim can do ?

In addition, you should try and call the attorney for the creditor and let them know the whole story. The lawyer certainly won't believe you on the first try, but you should keep trying to get through. Send a certified letter with whatever proof you have of the identity theft. It may not stop the attempts at collection, but it will be helpful for you to tell the Court you've tried to let the other side know what the issues are.

I know this sounds like I am being a naysayer -- and I really don't intend it that way.

Your suggestion is logical. I just don't know that it would go very far. If I were on the other end of the conversation, my response would be "why didn't you assert that defense before the judgment was granted?" I guess I would be pretty po'ed that I went to all that extra effort for no good whatsoever because it was a bogus deal from the get-go -- and that assumes I even believe the story.

I'm certainly not opposed to Mom filing an ID theft complaint with the NY AG. Maybe it would help sell the story to the creditor?

As you guys know, I am not an attorney. My legal education in the school of bumbling along has always caused me to believe that a defense not raised at trial is waived. Right? If so, there would be no grounds to vacate the judgment. I guess that was the idea going through my mind when I said there was not much mom could do.

OP -- please ignore all the preceding rambling. This is just us guys discussing technical points that are not very relevant. You are doing the right thing to make this easy on mom. Let us know if you need help with the questions.

[Texas Pooh]

Debt Guy,

You may certainly be right that it won't do any good, and legally, any defenses have been waived. However ...

Mom clearly should have fought the judgment, but didn't, so we have to deal with the results. Given the amount of the debt, as you correctly pointed out, post-judgment collection will continue and creditor will be aggressive. At some point, Mom is certainly going to have to go before the court for some reason - contempt, protest execution, etc. - and she will have to tell the story, because its the only story she has.

My thought process was to try and build the record now. The attorney for creditor is going to be very annoyed that he has wasted so much time/money/effort; Court will be annoyed that OP's Mom did not raise the issue early. Therefore, trying to alert the creditor, even at this late stage, is better than waiting for even more time/money/effort to be spent. Filing an AG complaint certainly adds credability.

OP has a story to tell - bad initial advice, language issues, family jumping in once it was clear it was a train wreck - creditor's lawyer will be frustrated, and it will take multiple efforts to convince him/her of the truth of the story - but still better, in my humble opinion, to at least start.

[Ladynred]

Butana12 - if you need the name of a GOOD NY consumer attorney for help, PM me and I will pass along this lawyer's information. He is a NACA attorney.