Texas Credit Card Lawsuit Defense

Credit Card Lawsuits

Have you been sued for a debt?"

There are hundreds of consumers sued in Texas cities every month.

Mike Weston has successfully defended hundreds of credit card lawsuits over the past few years. Below is a guide which will hopefully answer some of the burning questions that you have.

First, I understand that nobody likes to be sued. This may be the first time you have ever been sued. If you have been sued by a debt purchaser for an old debt, the first thing you need to realize is that you are not alone. There are thousands of consumers in Houston who are sued every month on debt that is usually three to four years old. Unfortunately most consumers make the mistake of not hiring an attorney to defend the lawsuit. The debt purchasing business has exploded in recent years. Debt purchasers buy portfolios of debt for as little as three cents on the dollar. The purchasers then farm the debt out to local collection attorneys who file individual lawsuits. Under Texas law, they only have four years to sue you from the time you made your last payment.

Why do they file the lawsuits?

They file the lawsuits because they want to get a judgment against you. With a judgment, the debt purchaser has a lot more power to collect from you than it did without a judgment. With a judgment, the purchaser can forcibly take money out of your bank account. This is called a garnishment. They cannot garnish your wages in Texas, but after you deposit your paycheck, the funds are no longer “wages” and they can be seized. Another popular reason they try to get a judgment is to hold onto the judgment until you try to buy, sell, or re-finance a home. A lot of times your lender will force you to pay off or settle a judgment prior to lending any money to you. A judgment lasts for 10 years and can be renewed. Needless to say, you don’t want to have a judgment against you.

Top Consumer Myths about debt purchaser lawsuits

I don’t have any assets so there is no reason for me to fight it.

As stated above, any money in the bank can be garnished. I have had people call me two to three years after a judgment to say that their bank account is frozen, even people on social security. (Technically creditors cannot garnish social security funds but I have seen it happen). You do not have notice of the garnishment either, usually the first sign is having a check bounce or a debit card declined. Also, just because you don’t have assets now doesn’t mean you won’t have assets 10 years from now. If you try to buy a house the judgment will most likely cause a problem. I would like to tell you that they won’t try to collect the judgment but that is generally not the case these days.

I know I owe the debt.

First things first, you may have owed a debt to the original creditor, but most likely they are out of the picture. They sold the debt to an investor and the amount alleged has probably doubled or tripled.

Let me explain it like this: You borrow $1,000 from a friend (A) you pay on the debt for a few years but because you lose your job you have to stop paying (A). Three years after you stoppedpaying (A), he sells the debt to his friend (B) for $30.00. Then B, a person who you have never met sues you for $4,000.00 on a debt he purchased for $30.00 without much documentation. Do you agree that you owe $4,000.00 to B? I didn’t think so. This is how the debt purchasing business works.

I don’t have any money to pay them.

I have settled $15,000.00 cases for $1,000.00. This is not the norm but they are much more likely to settle if you have an attorney. The vast majority of the time I get these cases dismissed but settlement may be appropriate in certain circumstances. (see below).

I don’t have money to hire an attorney.

I charge a flat fee of $1,250.00 to personally defend a case by a debt purchaser seeking to collect a consumer debt under $10,000 in Harris County. This means that I will not charge you any more or less than $1,250.00 to defend your lawsuit if you are being sued for under $10,000.00 in Harris County. I can take this payment on installments of as little as $250.00 per month. For $250.00 per month I will appear in court for you and respond to all of the written documentation that you are required to respond to.

They never provided me with proof that I owe them so I’ll just ignore them.

Don’t ignore the lawsuit! If you don’t fight the case and they get a judgment against you, the argument is over – you owe the debt. Your arguments down the road don’t matter. Now is the time to fight it!

I’ll just defend myself.

Famous last words. I personally would not try to re-wire the electricity in my house because I would probably electrocute myself. It’s no different in this situation. Every few weeks I get a call from a potential client who went this route and ended up with a judgment against them, not because they didn’t tell their side of the story right, but simply because they fell into a technical legal trap. The legal process is complicated and it is laced with traps. If you do not respond to certain questions in the petition in a certain way, within a certain time, you will probably end up with a judgment against you without even having your “day in court”. Unfortunately if you get a judgment against you, the process is very costly and time-consuming to try and undo that judgment.

Legal Info

(The information listed in the articles below was drafted by the attorneys at Weston & Associates, PLLC and is for informational purposes only and is not to be considered legal advice. The information relates to lawsuits filed in Texas for collection purposes.)