Please decipher this collection's letter

[bkirkpatrick]

What is the name of your state? California

Please decipher this letter:

In 1998 and in the State of Idaho, I had a 950.00 judgment against me. Well, I paid the judgment and was then told that I owed more money. After several phone calls to the collections company, which refused to give me a satisfaction of judgment, I finally called the court to speak with the Judge who handled the case. I was told that he had since retired and that I would have to go to court and set up a new hearing to be heard. Living in California, this was not feasible.

Fast forward to the present when I get home after posting my original post on this website. I get this non-certified letter from a collections service in California with the following text:

“You now have 10 days from the date of this letter to satisfy the above debt in full or we will be sending the Sheriff out to serve you with papers for a debtor’s exam in front of the judge and lien any automobiles or property as well. Please note that if you do not show up for the debtor’s exam, the judge will issue a warrant for your arrest”

Several questions: The original judgment was issued in Idaho while I was living in Idaho so what authority does a California collection service have to order a debtor’s exam? I have been to this collection agency’s web site and they are exactly that – a collection agency that charges 40% to recover fees.

Has this debt been merely farmed out to a collection agency in the state which I currently live (California) for attempted collection?

Since the Idaho collection agency is willing to take a 40% cut to collect the debt, does this mean that they would take a direct payment from me (which is guaranteed unlike the California collection agency) for the same 60% of the original debt (which is only 1000.00)? If so, what type of letter do I need to send to get the ball rolling.

Since several of you debt collectors are going to read this, I was going to pay the debt about two years ago to the Idaho agency. However, the employee refused to send me a confirmation letter stating that a satisfaction of judgment letter would be sent upon payment. Since I had no guarantee that I was going to get the letter, I refused to pay. Besides, this is clearly out-of-state gouging on their part (I am not going to get into specifics of the case but can).

[Joe V]

Firstly you indicated that you had satisfied this debt. Moving along, depending on what category of judgement i.e. criminal court vs civil court I do not believe a statute of limitations exists. However if this is a commercial debt i.e. credit card, auto loan, medical bill where it has been assigned to collections, and bought and sold through the years, you need only ignore it as the statute in both states has "run" ...and should disappear from your CR in 7.5 years. cannot help without knowing what the debt constitutes. SOunds like an aggressive collections agency that needs their wings clipped legally.

[bkirkpatrick]

Sorry for the lack of info. It was a civil judgement for alleged damage to a rented house where after only six months, they kept our 1200.00 deposit we ended up going to court and got zapped for another 950.00. We paid the 950.00 but that is where the Idaho CA became aholes and said we owed more. Even with our paperwork, they told us that because they had access to our credit, they were not going to give us a satisfaction of judgment paper. Now, some California collection agency has it and sent the listed letter.

My question is can the new California collection agency file/request a debt exam or do I just need to send them a certified letter telling them that the statute has "run" and to leave cease and desist? Any other recommendations would be helpful.