What are My Chances?
Sponsored by Pittsburgh PA Consumer Attorney Greg Artim
If you hire the right Attorney, your chances are excellent. An experienced attorney can often handle these types of cases in a very efficient manner, with little involvement by the client. The reason is that there are so many issues that the collection agency has to prove to prevail in a court of law, and they often have difficulty doing so.
They have to prove a number of issues in a lawsuit to collect a debt. I often tell my clients that the Collection Agency has to prove A to Z, and in fact, they have to place all of that information in the actual lawsuit.
First and foremost is that they have to prove that they have the right to sue you. Did the original creditor actually sell your account to them? Prove it to me. Often times, they can't do it. They have to prove that they acquired the right to pursue the account that you allegedly defaulted on or the lawsuit gets thrown out, right there.
Next, they have to prove that it was your account, and that you agreed to the terms and conditions that they allege are applicable to your account. This is a big one. Further, they have to prove that you made use of the credit account, they have to prove the interest rate, they have to prove the late fees, they have to prove that the lawsuit was filed within the proper Statute of Limitations, and so on. I have found that they have a great difficulty in proving these things if you present the proper defenses in the response to the lawsuit.
Contact our office at 412-823-8003 or toll free at 1-888-536-6644 for a free telephone consultation if you are being sued by a Collection Agency in Western Pennsylvania.