But one of the lawyer friends I mentioned does this. For example, if Chase is suing someone locally (in Richmond, VA), they hire a local law firm to do it (actually that firm is contracted to sue all their local customers).
The simple way to put this is that when it comes to court, my friend goes in and says, “Does this person owe the plaintiff money?” They say, “Yes, he does,” then he asks them to prove it. Again, I’m simplifying what he told me, which was a simplification in itself, but basically the law firm, if questioned properly, will have to reveal they do not have the authority to state the defendant owes them money.
Only specific people that are employees of, in this case, Chase, have the legal standing to state whether or not the defendant owes money.
Since they’re not there and can’t make the statement, the result is the defendant (my friend’s client) not only can’t be sued, but the debt is voided.
Again, as I’ve said twice, this is an oversimplification and not something any of us could do on our own. In most cases when my friend would start that line of questioning, the plaintiff’s attorney would see where it’s going and drop the case immediately, before the questioning can reach a conclusion. They could still re-sue at any time. There are ways to avoid this, such as filing the proper counter suit. Then there are other issues. I have a good technical mind and he had to dumb it down for me when he’s explained it in the past.
As Jon pointed out, usually the ending point is a FDCP violation filing and not going this way because, as I understand it, there are still only a limited number of lawyers who have been practicing with this kind of case.
Along with the FDCPA, there is also the Fair Credit Reporting Act, FCRA, and many times collection agencies or firms violate this and can be taken to court as well. Right now we’re about to check my credit report since I got a call from a telemarketer (violation #1, since I’m on the FCC’s Do Not Call list) who claimed to know my credit score. If we find the info by finding a credit check on my record, then (I am told), it’s almost a slam-dunk to win the case and the question is not if but how much.
I doubt, though, that they checked my credit score or anything else, since I’ve been debt free for over a year. (They were saying they could reduce my credit card interest rate on what I owe.) Thanks to my own business (the one my gf in QS didn’t consider successful since it wasn’t part of QS) I was able to pay off a large amount of debt in under a year. I mention that not so much for bragging rights, but as a point that MLMs are not the only way an individual can succeed. I’m debt free and doing well and I have yet to hear from mutual friends of her making any progress in QS.
