James Kutkowski runs The Law Offices of J. Kutkowski, Esq., and is an attorney who combines his knowledge of debt collection and bankruptcy to gain the complete trust of his clients. Here, he talks about how you can defend yourself against a credit card lawsuit in the state of Pennsylvania.
A credit card lawsuit in Pennsylvania is a lawsuit where a credit card company or another agent on its behalf sues you for debt that you may or may not owe. The majority of credit card cases are the provenance of the magistrates in the district courts in Pennsylvania. Those judges don’t have to be lawyers, and therefore you can get some strange results.
The first thing you should know about a credit card lawsuit is that you should always appear. The odds are pretty good that the credit card company that has filed the lawsuit will show up. If the credit card company doesn’t show up, you will generally win because they were not there to put their case on.
Don’t Make Their Case for Them
Credit card lawsuits generally fall in either the court of common pleas or the district court, depending on how much the debt is. If they do show up, you need to let them make their case. Whatever you do, don’t make their case for them.
There are several ways to attack a credit card lawsuit. The most common is lack of documentation. If the creditors do not have the documentation that you owe the debt, they cannot enforce the contract.
Attacking Veracity of Evidence
The problem with all of this is that some creditors have taken to taking the loss, signing up what they need to provide, getting exactly that and then appealing. Then, if they do that, you’re in a position of attacking the veracity of the evidence. That’s difficult, because under Pennsylvania Rule of Evidence 902 Section 9, a statement is generated in the ordinary course of business and therefore is considered valid evidence, without personal testimony of its veracity.
The courts here will normally accept a copy knowing that the original was sent to a creditor. If you have a lot of these types of lawsuits being filed against you, you should see a bankruptcy attorney and discuss your options in more detail. If the banks have taken it to the point of suing you, it’s not going away. So call your bankruptcy attorney and make sure you know what options are available to you, and how to act upon them in the right way.
In the state of Pennsylvania, a judgment from a credit card company can become a lien against your home. A credit card lawsuit is no joke; it’s something I see every day. I’m in a unique position where I am able to poke holes in a credit card company’s lawyer in a way that only credit card company insider can. I was one of the top debt collectors in the country with an intimate knowledge of the credit card industry, and can help you defend yourself successfully against a credit card company.
This article is for informational purposes only. You should not rely on this article as a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances, and you should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Publication of this article and your receipt of this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.
