Small Claim/never served/debt twice as original

[MicaVlad]

thank you so much for your help

sandyclaus,

I agree with you and respect and acknowledge the accuracy of your research.

(Isn’t it h*** when we’re in a time zone that allows us to do this? I’d even publicly apologize to wrongsometimes if his/her prescience that allows a prediction that an OP who wants to try to settle shouldn’t even try because it’s a foregone conclusion that they’ll fail. In fact, if the member can tell me the winner of March Madness, I’ll pay homage. Otherwise, it’s unforgivable hubris.)

It is anyone’s guess. For the record, the reason that I don’t think it will happen goes back to my observation about cost-benefit. The OP says they are still paying on the cars and have 3 more years of payments. To seize/sell the cars, the judgment creditor must domesticate the judgment, pay the balance of the loan(s) and the cost of executing and storing the personal property, the cost of sale and recoup an excess to satisfy the judgment (on a TV?). I represent commercial creditors who get ticked enough to want to take somebody’s house, until they understand they may come out losing money in the end.

In my experience, retail creditors work on numbers (a lot of judgments and steps that someday some will pay-off). While I agree with you that it’s legally possible (and I don’t post this to encourage enforcement-avoidance because there are many other negative implications), this OP is already in a hole credit-wise. In this case, the judgment creditor has to domesticate from another state and manage a “seize and sell” or retain an attorney in FL. That would represent a recoverable cost, but it would also represent an additional expense that would need to be recovered from the sale. In the end, it’s not a good business move (maybe if the judgment was x10 or x100) and not one that I speculate would be made. But, as you say, it’s a guess.

My guess is that the judgment creditor would be receptive to a settlement proposal for the foregoing reasons. It gets paid something without incurring additional costs and it can move on to the next problem. If the debtor defaults, it can chase the remaining balance and has more asset information.

Again, it’s an educated guess, but the industry is in the business to make, not lose, money. Still, I can’t fault your conclusions.

Your help has been more than appreciated.

About the Tv, one day stopped working so we don't have the tv anymore, of course back then we couldn't afford to fix it, the story about this tv has nothing but bad things.

we are thinking about making an offer to them, of a total 3500 (the most expensive tv in the world) we could offer 1000. my husband says that even with the 1000 plus all the interest payments he made before they still are getting over 10 times the value of the tv.

in the case they disagree with the offer, we will need to wait some time to come with all the money, as a member here in the forum said before, making payments in things doesnt work for us.

i have some questions for you, the thing that really worries me is:

- the fact that my friend is getting all the court decisions, can they start harassing her thinking i live there?
- if they domesticate the case, how long that would take?

im at loss of words to explain my gratitute towards all this help.

 

[wrongsometimes]

- the fact that my friend is getting all the court decisions, can they start harassing her thinking i live there?
- if they domesticate the case, how long that would take?
.

I re-read you first post, it was an outright purchase (the weekly charges threw me) ...

They might contact your friend ... you can tell him/her to have them contact you directly & this should stop.

I would recommend selling some stuff to be able to pay it off; otherwise your 2.5K bill can blossom to 10K before you know it.

 

[dcatz]

Q: the fact that my friend is getting all the court decisions, can they start harassing her thinking i live there?

A: OP, “harassing” is an important word with legal implications because of the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collections Practices Act), but we don’t know who “they” are. sandyclaus and I are in a state where the provisions of the FDCPA apply to original creditors (in this case, Best Buy), but that represents a very small minority that doesn’t include MA or FL. We’re going off on a whole new tangent here, because I’ve assumed that “they” are some professional collection entity representing Best Buy and still suspect that’s true. (If it’s not, I think you can safely disregard the whole discussion about “domestication” because Best Buy is not going to directly chase you from state to state.) If your friend is contacted by mail, return it unopened marked “addressee unknown”. If she is contacted by phone, explain that you received mail at that address while re-locating out-of-state. No additional information is required. If repeated contacts from a collection agency/attorney continue notwithstanding, your friend may have a cause of action under the FDCPA. That’s a complex issue in itself, and I’d suggest reviewing “prohibited acts” as defined by the FDCPA before that digression.

Q: if they domesticate the case, how long that would take?

A: Rough guess? A couple of months at least. They would have to file a new case in FL to domesticate a sister-state judgment. They would have to support that with an exemplified copy of the MA judgment obtained from the MA court. They would have to serve you with notice of the filing (meaning they have to know where you are) and you would have 30 days to respond with opposition to the domestication (which is when you get your chance to make your “service in MA argument” if you choose).

Parenthetically, I agree with your husband. Remember, if you make a deal (and get it in writing, if you do) and you do default (as predicted by wrongsometimes), any payments you do make go to reduce the balance. Thus, the decision to domesticate should become harder, because the cost for the judgment creditor remains the same for a smaller potential recovery. Again, it just seems like bad business to me. The bad debt write-off has already been taken and anything more is a gamble, but no deal leaves the black mark on your credit.

(OP, I look-in on this forum perhaps once a month and may try to contribute to the resolution of unique problems. If so, it's normally a one-and-done situation and, for me, with due respect, this has become the neverending story. You’ve gotten as much valid information from members as I think you will to the question posed. Now we’re all speculating, so I wish you good luck and I’ll move on. I yield the floor to wrongsometimes, who seems determined to have the last word, as wild, inaccurate or surreal as it may be.

 

[MicaVlad]

thank you so much again

Thank you very much for your time and very useful help. i wish you only the best.
Sincerely,
Mica