What is the name of your state? New York.
I live in New York state. I would immensely appreciate any help/advice as I have no legal knowledge.
I had a legal Judgement filed against me about 7-8 years ago (the initial amount was $4000+). I received a letter when the Judgment was filed with request to appear in court. . As I did not go to court, money was taken out of my checking account at that time, but only the balance of my account $700+.
Just yesterday, the same creditor has initiated a debit in the amount of $26,000 in another checking account. I had only about $25 in it, so my account is presently about -$25,975.
In between 7-8 years ago and now, I received numerous letters from the creditor with the debt increasing by hundreds of dollars each month. I did nothing to respond to this letters except contacted creditor by phone which got me nowhere.
My questions are:
1) How do I appeal this judgement? I did not take it seriously at first
2) What happens to the debit? Does it stay on my account and I now owe the bank, or will the bank treat it as a case of insufficient fees and cancel the transaction?
The so-called debt is to a university that claims I signed up for some courses. It's a paralyzing situation for me because I can't quite prove my case and I really haven't tried to beyond sending letters to the school administration and deans with no response.
What happened is this... I wanted to sign up for some courses but the phone sign-up period was closed (it closes a few days before classes begin). I had to sign up by filling out a piece of paper and getting permission from the dean. These were evening courses I wanted to attend while working.
I went to speak to the Dean and mentioned that I possibly wanted to take these courses. My recollection is that I met him in his office and chatted. I spoke to him about the courses and he gave me the piece of paper to fill out indicating what courses I wanted to take. I TENTATIVELY filled it out and gave it to him with the understanding that he would process it (give it to someone who'd sign me up). However, I was unsure whether my demanding job allowed me time to get to the school on time for classes and asked him to hold off until I got in touch with him. I wanted to speak to my supervisor about it because taking these courses required the benevolence of my supervisor.
I decided not to take the courses because the schedule and workload was too demanding. My only and sole mistake in this was that I never got in touch with the dean to let him know that I will NOT be taking the courses. I did not do so because I left him with the understanding that he would sign me up ONLY and ONLY if I got in touch with him. Unfortunately, this was a verbal understanding in the course of a conversation in his office. Never would I have thought it would cause me so much trouble. Seemingly, something happened and he had me signed up for these courses.
I didn't give this one thought for months, being assured that I was not signed up in anything. The college never sent me a letter or contacted me to inform me that I was signed up, until I received th e bill. I called to explain that I did not take these courses and they told me that I must drop them NOW, after the courses have ended. I did, but according to the college, I still owe a large percentage of the tuition.
I did contact the creditor - a law firm representing the college - and they told me that dropping the courses after their end was my acknowledgment that I did sign up. Of course, this is not true. I dropped because the college told me to do so.
I want to reopen this judgment and go to a Judge and present my case. I ignored the first judgment hearing because I literally had no idea what a judgment was - I thought it was a scam to scare me. I also did not and do not feel I owe this college-of-my-nightmares one cent as I never even stepped on campus during that period, and did not sign up for the courses. For this reason, I did not take the matter seriously - owing thousands of dollars for nothing was just so plain insane to me that I thought there's no way they can actually claim I owe this. I also didn't know how to prove my case, as I describe above.. so I let the matter alone thinking it would go away.
What can I do now? How can I prove my case? Please help me.
Thank you!
AJ
I live in New York state. I would immensely appreciate any help/advice as I have no legal knowledge.
I had a legal Judgement filed against me about 7-8 years ago (the initial amount was $4000+). I received a letter when the Judgment was filed with request to appear in court. . As I did not go to court, money was taken out of my checking account at that time, but only the balance of my account $700+.
Just yesterday, the same creditor has initiated a debit in the amount of $26,000 in another checking account. I had only about $25 in it, so my account is presently about -$25,975.
In between 7-8 years ago and now, I received numerous letters from the creditor with the debt increasing by hundreds of dollars each month. I did nothing to respond to this letters except contacted creditor by phone which got me nowhere.
My questions are:
1) How do I appeal this judgement? I did not take it seriously at first
2) What happens to the debit? Does it stay on my account and I now owe the bank, or will the bank treat it as a case of insufficient fees and cancel the transaction?
The so-called debt is to a university that claims I signed up for some courses. It's a paralyzing situation for me because I can't quite prove my case and I really haven't tried to beyond sending letters to the school administration and deans with no response.
What happened is this... I wanted to sign up for some courses but the phone sign-up period was closed (it closes a few days before classes begin). I had to sign up by filling out a piece of paper and getting permission from the dean. These were evening courses I wanted to attend while working.
I went to speak to the Dean and mentioned that I possibly wanted to take these courses. My recollection is that I met him in his office and chatted. I spoke to him about the courses and he gave me the piece of paper to fill out indicating what courses I wanted to take. I TENTATIVELY filled it out and gave it to him with the understanding that he would process it (give it to someone who'd sign me up). However, I was unsure whether my demanding job allowed me time to get to the school on time for classes and asked him to hold off until I got in touch with him. I wanted to speak to my supervisor about it because taking these courses required the benevolence of my supervisor.
I decided not to take the courses because the schedule and workload was too demanding. My only and sole mistake in this was that I never got in touch with the dean to let him know that I will NOT be taking the courses. I did not do so because I left him with the understanding that he would sign me up ONLY and ONLY if I got in touch with him. Unfortunately, this was a verbal understanding in the course of a conversation in his office. Never would I have thought it would cause me so much trouble. Seemingly, something happened and he had me signed up for these courses.
I didn't give this one thought for months, being assured that I was not signed up in anything. The college never sent me a letter or contacted me to inform me that I was signed up, until I received th e bill. I called to explain that I did not take these courses and they told me that I must drop them NOW, after the courses have ended. I did, but according to the college, I still owe a large percentage of the tuition.
I did contact the creditor - a law firm representing the college - and they told me that dropping the courses after their end was my acknowledgment that I did sign up. Of course, this is not true. I dropped because the college told me to do so.
I want to reopen this judgment and go to a Judge and present my case. I ignored the first judgment hearing because I literally had no idea what a judgment was - I thought it was a scam to scare me. I also did not and do not feel I owe this college-of-my-nightmares one cent as I never even stepped on campus during that period, and did not sign up for the courses. For this reason, I did not take the matter seriously - owing thousands of dollars for nothing was just so plain insane to me that I thought there's no way they can actually claim I owe this. I also didn't know how to prove my case, as I describe above.. so I let the matter alone thinking it would go away.
What can I do now? How can I prove my case? Please help me.
Thank you!
AJ
