New advice

[miguelsndvl]

What is the name of your state? Arizona
My father had a credit card that went delinquent and into collections in 2000 the original creditor was Providian National bank and the credit limit at the time was only 500.00 with interest it balloned to something like 1082.00 my father is currently in prison and my mother was contacted by an attorney's office telling her that if 1400.00 was not paid by aug 27 that they are going to take them to court... As it seems they did just that and served my mother papers indicating the plaintiff as Unifund CCR partners as summoning my father to court what options at this point do we have??

 

[Ladynred]

Statute of limitations for legal action to collect a debt in AZ is THREE YEARS !
That means that if the last payment on the account really was in 2000, then the SOL expired LAST YEAR ! It also means your parents have a perfect defense against this lawsuit - the debt is time-barred and its an affirmative defense.

If the Summons says your father/parents must file an Answer with the court, then he/she must do so and in that Answer you use the Affirmative Defense that the debt is time-barred.

Obviously your father can't go to court, he's a prisoner, but since AZ is a community property state, your mother is just as liable for the debt as he is.

Here is a link to some instructions on how to answer a lawsuit for a time-barred debt: http://community-2.webtv.net/YCHANGE/STORAGE/page2.html

Whatever you do, do NOT ignore this and fail to file the Answer and/or go to court - or they'll win a judgment when they have no right to win.