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Please help with Discovery Phase of Trial

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LekiaHall

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Maryland

Hello,

I'm the Plaintiff in a civil suit against a collection agency for FDCPA and FCRA violations. They have an attorney representing them who's recently sent me interrogatories. Most of the questions are totally irrelevant to the case and I'm just wondering what would be an acceptable response to the courts. I'm also unsure on how my responses should be worded. Any guidance with this is MUCH appreciated. The time line for me to respond if fastly dwindling!!
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The interrogatories are:

1. Identify yourself and state all names by which you have been known, your date of birth, your marital status, date and place of your marriage, occupation, identity of your present employer and your social security number.

I feel that my DOB, Marital Status, Date and Place of Marriage, Occupation and Present Employer are totally irrelevant to the case. My social security number is privileged and confidential information. What would be a legally correct way to phrase my "it's none of your business" response?

2. If you intend to rely upon any documents or other tangible things to support a position that you have taken or intend to take in the action, including a claim for damages, provide a brief description, by category and location, of all such documents and other tangible things, and identify all persons having possession, custody, or control of them (Stand General Interrogatory No. 3).

For these question, should I include copies of the FDCPA and FCRA since I'm alleging that they violated these laws?

3. Identify each person, other than a person intended to be called as an expert witness at trial, having discoverable information that tends to support a position that you have taken or intend to take in this action, including any claim for damages, and state all the subject matter of the information possessed by that person. (Stand General Interrogatory No. 1).

My response: Plaintiff presently unaware of any such responsive documents/witnesses however discovery is just beginning and you reserve the right to introduce any subsequently-discovered documents or witness at trial.

Is this an acceptable response?

4. Identify all persons who are expected to testify on your behalf as expert witnesses at trial and state the subject matter about which each such person is expected to testify, the substance of the facts and opinions to which each person is expected to testify and a summary of the grounds for each such opinion.

My response: Plaintiff presently unaware of any such responsive documents/witnesses however discovery is just beginning and you reserve the right to introduce any subsequently-discovered documents or witness at trial.

Is this an acceptable response?


5. State the address of each place where you have ever resided in the last 6 years, the dates thereof, the identity of your landlord and the reason for leaving such residence.

I feel that my prior addresses, landlords and reasons for moving is irrelevant to this proceeding and would like to object to answering these questions.

How do I do this within the legal limits of law in MD?


6. State with particularity all facts upon which you rely to support your allegations that the Defendant violated the F.D.C.P.A.

I know what to do with this one, thankfully.

7. State with particularity all facts upon which you rely to support your allegations that the Defendant violated the F.C.R.A.

I know what to do with this one, as well.

8. State with particularity, including citations, any and all Maryland laws you allege the Defendant violated.

Since Maryland generally adopts the law of the FDCPA that the collection agency violated. I attend to state this fact. Is this acceptable?

9. State with particularity all facts upon which you rely to support your allegations that the Defendant violated Maryland State laws.
I will restated the facts from Paragraph 6.

10. State with particularity all facts upon which you rely to support your allegations that the Defendant defamed you.

This is one allegation I'd like to amend. I'm assuming I'll have to file an amended suit, correct? Or can I just say: Plaintiff wishes to withdraw this allegation?

11. State with particularity all enabled identity fraud/theft.
I'd like to amend this allegation as well. Will I have to file an amended suit or can I just say: Plaintiff wishes to withdraw this allegation?

12. Attach your Answers to these Interrogatories the following documents:

a. any written instrument upon which your claim is founded.

b. any statements concerning the action or its subject matter previously made by the Defendant whether a written statement, signed or otherwise adopted or approved by that party, or a stenographic, mechanical, electrical, or other recording, or a transcription thereof, that is a substantially verbatim recital of an oral statement made by the Defendant and contemporaneously recorded; and

c. any written report, whether acquired or developed in anticipation of litigation or for trial, made by an expert whom you expect to call as an expert witness at trial.


For this one, I plan to provide copies of all of my correspondence with the collection agency and provide copies of my proof of delivery from the post office.

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Thanks in advance for all help

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JETX

Senior Member
Though I am reluctant to provide any ideas as to your responses, since we have NO idea what your claims are or how you came to make them, I will offer the following GENERAL suggestions:
On #1:
Give your name and address. General objection to other questions as to relevance.

On #2:
Give a brief description of your claim "defendants conduct was in violation of several federal laws, specfically the FDCPA, FCRA and others."

Your response to 3 and 4 is okay. Take out the 'you'.

On 5:
Object as to relevance.

On 8:
Yes.

On 10:
Leave the defamation in there. It is critical. Simply state that by reporting erroneous information to reporting agencies, defendant defamed reputation and credit approval.

On 11:
Did your petition include this claim that the defendant may be guilty of the ACT of identity theft and/or fraud??

On 12:
Okay.
 

LekiaHall

Junior Member
Thanks for the response. Quick question, though.

When I include the documents for Paragraph 12, do I need to label and describe them as Exhibits, or just provide copies of what I have and staple them to my answers?
 

JETX

Senior Member
Normally, you would attach them as Exhibits with an index. However, since this is small claims, simply attaching them should be sufficient.

BTW, what you have received is a fairly standard 'boiler plate' interrogatory form. I think it was sent more in an attempt to intimidate you than to actually gain answers to your lawsuit.
 

LekiaHall

Junior Member
Thanks for responding JetX,

I'm filing in District Court for 5K so I'm not sure if my case will be heard by a small claims judge. Also, when I filed my case, for brevity I only stated a summary of my allegations. I did not elaborate. I'd like to include my exhibits in the hopes of detailing my case a little better, therefore, I'd like to include the following explanations along with my exhibits. Please let me know if this should suffice or if the format should be different.

(Also, for Exhibits should I include the correspondence that I received from the collection agency (Exhibits A & J) or only include info on the stuff that I sent to them?
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EXHIBIT INDEX AND SUMMARY


Exhibit (“A”)-Initial correspondence from Defendant, Financial Management Services, Inc. Prior to this correspondence, Plaintiff had no knowledge of any business relationship with the Defendant and had no knowledge of this debt.

Exhibit (“B”)-Plaintiff initial contact to Defendant, requesting validation of this debt under the rights afforded her under the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Letter sent via certified mail was received and signed for by the Defendant. (Exhibit "C").

Exhibit (“D” & “E”)- , Plaintiff became aware that this alleged debt was being reported to Equifax by the Defendant prior to debt validation. Plaintiff disputed this alleged debt and requested an investigation by Equifax. Plaintiff became aware that the Defendant pulled a hard inquiry on her Equifax report on June 11, 2003 (See attached Exhibit (“D”). Defendant, Financial Management Services, did not respond to Plaintiff’s request for validation of the debt, but rather verified this invalidated account as accurate to Equifax. (See attached Exhibit "E"). Plaintiffs contends that this is a violation of the FDPCA as the Defendant knew that the Plaintiffs disputed this information and yet continued collection activity without providing validation of this alleged debt.

Exhibit (“F”)- FDCPA Federal Trade Commission Staff Opinion Letter dated December 23, 1997, (LeFevre-Cass), that addresses the issue of debt validation that states:

"II. "Is it permissible under the FDCPA for a debt collector to report, or continue to report, a consumer's charged-off debt to a consumer reporting agency after the debt collector has received, but not responded to, a consumer's written dispute during the 30-day validation period detailed in § 1692g?"

As you know, Section 1692g(b) requires the debt collector to cease collection of the debt at issue if a written dispute is received within the 30-day validation period until verification is obtained. Because we believe that reporting a charged-off debt to a consumer reporting agency, particularly at this stage of the collection process, constitutes "collection activity" on the part of the collector, our answer to your question is No. Although the FDCPA is unclear on this point, we believe the reality is that debt collectors use the reporting mechanism as a tool to persuade consumers to pay, just like dunning letters and telephone calls..."

(Full text attached as Exhibit "G")

(Exhibits “H” & “I”)-After the Defedant’s failure to respond, Plaintiff sent another letter via certified mail, to the Defendant again requesting evidence of this alleged debt or in the alternative, the immediate and permanent removal of this derogatory listing on her consumer report. (Exhibit "H") This correspondence was received and signed for by the Defendant. (Exhibit "I").

Exhibit (“J”)- Plaintiffs received correspondence from Defendant, which included a handwritten itemization of inaccurately totaled charges on the Defendant’s letterhead. Plaintiffs contend this information does not conform to the principles of accepted forms of validation.

Exhibit (“K”)- FDCPA Federal Trade Commission Staff Opinion Letter dated March 10, 1993, (Wollman), that addresses this issue and states:

“This is in response to your letter of February 9, 1993 to David Medine regarding the type of verification required by Section 809(b) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. You ask whether a collection agency for a medical provider will fulfill the requirements of that Section if it produces "an itemized statement of services rendered to a patient on its own computer from information provided by the medical institution . . .” in response to a request for verification of the debt. You also ask who is responsible for mailing the verification to the consumer.

The statute requires that the debt collector obtain verification of the debt and mail it to the consumer (emphasis mine). Because one of the principal purposes of this Section is to help consumers who have been misidentified by the debt collector or who dispute the amount of the debt, it is important that the verification of the identity of the consumer and the amount of the debt be obtained directly from the creditor. Mere itemization of what the debt collector already has does not accomplish this purpose. As stated above, the statute requires the debt collector, not the creditor, to mail the verification to the consumer.”

(Full text attached as Exhibit “L")

Exhibit (“M” & “N”))- Plaintiffs sent Defendant a faxed letter notifying the Defendant of Plaintiffs’ receipt of correspondence and of their duties of verification (Exhibit “M”). This correspondence was faxed and Plaintiff has confirmation of successfully transmission. (Exhibit “N”) The Defendant, Financial Management Services, Inc did not respond.
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JETX

Senior Member
I was afraid this was going to happen when I tried to help with your GENERAL issues regarding a response to their discovery request.

Due to the limits (and intents) of this forum, we cannot provide DETAILED analysis of your legal actions. Simply, we do not know all the facts!!
Offering detailed legal services in this forum without ALL the facts would be like trying to diagnose your medical condition over the phone. And would also be in violation of your states UPL laws.

If you need specific legal services, contact a local attorney. If you need general legal ADVICE, let us know.
 

LekiaHall

Junior Member
I apologize for not understanding the rules of the forum. I did obtain some of the answers I needed by calling the Clerk's office.

Thanks for all of the help and again, my apologies.
 

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