Have You Been Sued by a Third-Party Debt Buyer?
If You’ve Been Sued, You Must Act Quickly
If you have been sued by a debt buyer or any creditor, you must act quickly. You have a very limited amount of time to respond to a lawsuit in Arizona, which could be 20 days or less. If you fail to properly respond to a lawsuit, you could end up with a default judgment against you and could have your wages and bank accounts garnished, among other collection consequences.
We offer a free consultation with an attorney so you can learn about your options. We also have a low flat fee for our services. No hourly rates, no surprises. We have the knowledge and experience to defend these cases and protect your rights, so don’t let your case go to a default judgment.
How Debt Buyers Operate in Arizona
When a debt like a credit card debt is not paid, eventually the card issuer will “charge-off” the debt. Essentially, this means the original creditor (the bank that issued you the credit card) has determined that it is unlikely to collect payment from you on the debt and is pushing the account to the next step. For some banks, this may mean more aggressive collection tactics like litigation. But for many banks, they will simply sell the debt to a third-party for pennies on the dollar.
The third-party debt buyer, or junk debt buyer, will then attempt to collect against the debtor, which will often result in suing the debtor in court. But many of these debt buyers purchase the accounts with little or no paperwork or proof as to who the correct debtor is, the actual amount owed, or even who owned the debt prior to its purchase.
When properly challenged in court by a credit card defense attorney, these junk debts can often be exposed for what they are – junk. Of course, in some cases the debtor may actually owe part or all of the money and it may be possible to reach a settlement for a fraction of the balance.
Defending Debt Buyer Lawsuits in Arizona
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If you’ve been sued by a debt buyer, our firm can help. We will thoroughly analyze your case to determine if you have viable defenses and develop a strategy to resolve the lawsuit. Here are just some of the many potential defenses and strategies you may have against a junk debt buyer lawsuit:
- Statute of Limitations Expired
- No Chain of Title to Ownership of the Debt
- No Contract or Usage of the Account
- Inadmissible Evidence
- Wrong Person Named in the Lawsuit
- Incorrect Amount or Interest Calculation
- Accord & Satisfaction (Prior Settlement)
- FDCPA Violations
- Debt Buyer Not Authorized to Sue
- Discharge in Bankruptcy
- And Many More…
Why You Should Fight to Defend a Debt Buyer Lawsuit
People sometimes assume that if a company says you owe a debt then you must be liable and any lawsuit to collect it is just a formality, leading to the inevitable. But that is not necessarily true. Like any plaintiff in an Arizona court, debt buyers must be able to prove their case. You shouldn’t have to pay someone for a debt that you don’t owe or that you don’t owe to them. If the debt buyer can’t prove that you owe the debt and specifically that you owe the debt to them, as opposed to some other entity, then you shouldn’t have to pay them. And that is what the court process is about.
If it turns out you do owe some or all of the debt, and the debt was properly assigned to the debt buyer that is suing you, then it may be possible to settle the debt for a fraction of the amount claimed by the debt buyer. Our firm is skilled at negotiating settlements for a fraction of the amount claimed.
Common Junk Debt Buyers
Here is a partial list of some of the more common names of companies that pursue third-party or junk debts.
- CACH, LLC
- Midland Funding, LLC
- Midland Credit Management, Inc.
- LVNV Funding, LLC
- Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC
- Cavalry SPV I, LLC
- Asset Acceptance LLC
- Copper State Financial Management, LLC
- Cortez Investment Co., LLC
- Unifund CCR, LLC
- Salander Enterprises, LLC
- Lakewalk, LLC
- Skystreak, LLC
- Berkeley Row, LLC
- Razor Capital, LLC
- ELCHE, LLC
- Autovest, LLC
- Security Credit Services, LLC