Have you been sued by a credit
card attorney, credit card company or debt collector?
Credit card lawsuits can be defended.
As a
credit card lawsuit and
debt lawsuit
defense attorney, I represent Texas consumers being sued
by debt collectors. The civil court system has been
flooded with two types of debt collection lawsuits:
1. Lawsuits filed by Original
Creditors; particularly credit card companies and
2. Lawsuits filed by Debt Buyers, who claim to have
purchased a debt from the first category, the
"Original Creditors," or in some instances from
other Debt Buyers.
If you have been sued for a credit card
debt you need to keep several things in mind. First, you
are not alone! You are one of thousands upon thousands
who have found yourself in this precarious position.
Second, once the Debt Collector filed the lawsuit, the
Debt Collector ceased being merely a "Debt Collector"
and became a Plaintiff. This means that the Collector is
no longer allowed the free reign that they so often
enjoy. They are now required to prove their case "by a
preponderance of the credible evidence," and they must
do so within the confines of the Texas Rules of Civil
Procedure, the Texas Rules of Evidence, and whatever
local rules may apply to the Court with jurisdiction
over your case.
In other words, merely claiming that you owe the Debt
Collector a debt isn’t good enough – now they have to
prove it, and their proof must meet the standards
imposed by the rules.
What does this mean to you? It means that you shouldn’t
think that just because somebody has sued you over an
alleged credit card debt that you don’t have a defense.
Once the lawsuit is filed, it’s not your burden to prove
that you don’t owe the money to the Plaintiff. The
Plaintiff has the burden of proof at trial, and with a
competent trial lawyer at your side, putting a Plaintiff
to its burden can be as good a defense as any.
I defend both Original Creditor and Debt Buyer lawsuits.
Most of the Texas collection lawsuits that I see are
credit card lawsuits, meaning what started off as a
convenient and seemingly harmless credit card account
wound up turning into a credit card lawsuit. These days,
it seems like just about everybody has credit card debt.
Many consumers have unexpectedly accumulated more debt
than they can handle. Credit card companies like to rely
on the “fine print” to unfairly maximize their financial
receivables and increase revenue. They may unexpectedly
and without explanation lower the credit limit of a
consumer in good standing, thus unilaterally and
unfairly pushing the consumer over the consumer’s credit
limit. The credit card company will often then increase
the consumer’s interest rate to an astronomical amount,
and may assess ridiculous penalties for exceeding the
credit limit - all rights the credit card company claims
to have due to the “fine print” that the consumer
probably never saw. The result is that many consumers in
good standing with their credit card issuers are now
facing a debt that is quickly “snowballing” into an
unmanageable amount. Faced with a daunting financial
scenario that is spinning out of control, many consumers
simply give up and walk away from the debt. Sound
familiar?
The ultimate result of the scenario described above (and
many not described – everybody’s case is different) may
be a credit card lawsuit, meaning the consumer gets sued
for the outstanding credit card debt. Texas civil courts
are literally bursting at the seams due to credit card
lawsuits. Take a stroll through a Texas courthouse on a
Monday morning and you may see hundreds of credit card
lawsuits listed on the trial docket. Local Texas credit
card attorneys, known as “appearance counsel,” may also
be lurking in the courthouse halls waiting to prove up
default judgments against unrepresented consumers who
failed to properly answer the lawsuit. Credit card
attorneys perform various other tasks and sometimes
appear at credit card lawsuit trials. These local credit
card attorneys are usually paid a flat rate to handle
hearings and trials and typically appear on behalf of
debt collection law firms that file a large volume of credit card lawsuits.
Defending against a Texas credit attorney, credit card lawsuit
or debt
collection lawsuit may seem like an impossible task.
Without a defense attorney, it is
likely to be very difficult. Don’t allow a credit card
attorney to take advantage of you the same way the
credit card company did. If you are on the receiving end
of a Texas credit card lawsuit, I would be happy to
visit with you about your case.
I don’t charge a
consultation fee and my
contact information is noted on
this website.
Review my results. |
