law suit for a 9 year old debt in SC short version

[onebat4u]

What is the name of your state?sc
July 28th 2004 My wife answers the door at 7am and a sheriff officer hands her papers that has F.D.C. taking me to Civil Court. In the paper work a CA is asking for $ 1150 plus interest from April 30th 2002 to June 7th 2004 of $457.92 (this is 18.90 o/o per annum) The cover sheet of this law suit has a box marked with the title (this case is subject to Arbitration Pursuant to the Circuit Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Rules).
This is a list of some of the things I know
1. I did have a master card acct in the early 1990’s it did close in 1995.
2. The statutes of limitations in S.C. is 3 years
3. I did ask for info on the acct to make sure it was my in 2001 and never got anything
4. In the law suit there is a sheet with a break down of what F.D.C. says is owed. And the top line reads “Balance as of LAST PAYMENT DATE April 30 2002” I have never sent any money to them nor agreed to send money to them and did not have any kind of contact with them after July 27th 2001
5. My wife spoke to a Judge she knows, he didn’t have time to look over anything but did say he was not sure why F.D.C was taking this to civil court and I spoke to a lawyer on the phone who handles this type of cases and he said the same thing.
6. The FDCPA state that a collection agency can’t sue if the statutes of limitations is past.
7. The amount that F.D.C. was asking in May of 2001 is $33 less than what they are asking for now?
I do have an appointment set up with a lawyer in a week. I just wanted to see if I could find out if there could be something more wrong with this. The way I see it I have someone in another state with an old acct number and my name asking for money and no way of showing I owe it. Thank you for your time with this.

 

[JETX]

First, thank you for the somewhat shortened version..... and now the short and simple response....

File an answer to the lawsuit stating that the SOL (Statute of Limitations) has expired and cite the SC law as to open account SOL (S.C. Code Ann. § 15-3-510 et. seq.).

Then, show up at court at the time/date set and, when they call your case, present your SOL expired defense.
For more on this, go to: http://community-2.webtv.net/@HH!95!9E!BB25B02B94C7/YCHANGE/STORAGE/page2.html

 

[Ladynred]

Just an FYI - when these debt collectors buy old debts they rarely buy all the paperwork that documents any part of the account. That's why most of them can't ever produce adequate proof of the debt or they'll tell you they can't get it or won't. Creditors apparently charge these collectors to go dig up the actual files that contain the details of an account, and the collectors seldom want to pay - especially if the debt is small.

 

[JETX]

Yep. Let me give you an example of how the 'debt purchase' business works.

A creditor bundles his bad debt (charge offs) into a portfolio, often hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then they sell this 'portfolio' to a debt buyer for less than $0.10 on the dollar (sometimes far less). By the time that a debt like the OP's (nine years old) is sold, it has probably been bought and sold several times, each to a little lower 'quality' person/company.... and for even less money.

So, if this scumbag 'buyer' can manage to scam and con his way to getting 15% or more of his 'victims' to pay up... often by doing 'bulk lawsuit' filings, he is ahead. And if he can get 25% (only ONE-QUARTER) of his victims to fall for his scam.... he can make some real money!!

This is BIG business. Here are some sites of companies that sell unpaid debt:
http://www.unifund.com/Corp.htm
http://www.debtdepot.com/Default.asp
http://www.nlex.com/Auction/XcAuctionPro.asp