Having a debt collection agency hound you can trigger stress and anxiety. However, the stress and anxiety you felt when a company harassed you by phone or intimidated you via letters is nothing compared to the stress and anxiety triggered by a lawsuit filed by a third party debt collector.
If a bill collector like Mitchell D. Bluhm & Associates, LLC has sued you, make sure you carefully read the summons served to you by the county where you live. If you do not respond to a summons that requests your presence for a lawsuit, you can expect the judge presiding over the case to rule in the favor of the debt collection agency.
Although you must receive a properly issued summons, you cannot refuse to have a court official serve you with summons papers. Hiding behind a set of curtains does not do you any good either. The summons contains the date of the first hearing and if you do not show up, you can expect to pay the entire amount a third party debt collector claims you owe on an outstanding credit card or personal loan balance.
How Should You Respond to a Lawsuit?
Now that you have decided to reply to the summons and participate in the legal proceedings that surround a lawsuit, you need to know the important deadlines to meet that prevent the judge from ruling for the third party debt collector.
You have 20 days after receiving a personally delivered summons to respond to the summons. The deadline goes up 10 days, if the summons was served in another manner. Make sure to check with the guidelines established by your state to verify the deadlines. The 20 and 30-day standard is the most typical deadlines established by many states.
Above all, take responsibility for the alleged delinquent consumer debt. The amount stated on the summons might not be correct, and a licensed attorney who specializes in handling cases covering the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) can confirm whether the amount claimed to be owed by a bill collector is indeed accurate.
Written into federal law by the United States Congress, the FDCPA forbids a long list of previously valid debt collection practices. It also includes a provision that grants consumers the right to file claims seeking monetary damages.
Winning a claim against Mitchell D. Bluhm & Associates, LLC
Any violation of the FDCPA is legal grounds for filing a claim that seeks statutory damages. With a limit of $1,000, statutory damages covers every FDCPA violation committed by the same company. For example, if Mitchell D. Bluhm & Associates, LLC intimidated you by threatening you with law enforcement action, you can file a claim that asks for statutory damages up to $1,000.
If you can link the illegal behavior of a debt collection agency to physical and/or emotional duress symptoms, then you can file a claim that seeks actual damages. The FDCPA does not place a limit on how much a consumer can receive in actual damages.
Never allow a third party debt collector to push you around by filing a lawsuit. Schedule a free initial consultation today with an experienced FDCPA lawyer.
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*Disclaimer: The content of this article serves only to provide information and should not be constructed as legal advice. If you file a claim against Mitchell D. Bluhm & Associates, LLC or any other third-party collection agency, you may not be entitled to any compensation.