As the second largest city in Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh receives hundreds of Credit Card and Collection Agency lawsuits each week.  Because of the high volume of cases, there have been several court rulings regarding these cases, to keep an even flow and to prevent them from clogging the Pittsburgh court system.

The most important rule is the 120 rule issued by Judge Wettick.  This rule applies to credit card or collection agency cases that are defective.  (As per my other posts, almost all of these lawsuits are defective initially).  Judge Wettick’s ruling is essentially that the credit card companies and collection agencies have 120 days to correct the defects inherent within their lawsuits.  If they are unable to correct the defects, the case is dismissed (which means thrown out of court). 

If they make a minor correction, that cures a few defects, but not all of them, then objections can be filed a second time.  If this occurs, then Judge Wettick gives the collection agency or credit card company an additional 30 days to make corrections.  Typically, Judge Wettick does not afford further opportunity to these companies. 

The ruling has obvious benefits to the court system.  The collection attorneys know what they need to have to proceed with a case, and the consumer attorneys such as myself who are defending against these lawsuits know exactly how the court will rule on a given case.

I am amazed at the number of people who choose to hire a debt settlement company.  I realize that you are being bombarded with advertisements that claim that they can help, but the truth is that most of these agencies are scams, or, in a better light, simply not worth the money.

The scams are quite frequent.  I have had a number of clients contact me with the same claim, that they have paid several monthly payments, sometimes up to 18 months worth,  only to find that the settlement company has done nothing or worse, gone out of business. 

Other clients contact me and say that the settlement company did help them.  When I hear that, I always dig further.  Client X called me a few months ago and told me that a debt settlement company got a $20,000 credit card debt reduced to $12,000, which he thought was a great deal.  Then I asked him about payments and he told me that he had made 19 $1000 payments to the company.  I asked him to do the math and I could see his jaw drop through the phone.  He was charged $7000 to obtain a net  $1000 reduction on his claim.  To make matters worse, we found out that they have given him bad advice on a claim that they could not settle.  (That is why he contacted me). 

He received a lawsuit from a collection agency that the debt settlement company could not settle.  The debt settlement company advised him to send a letter to the court explained his financial difficulties.  Fortunately, he contacted me before sending the letter.  Had he sent that letter, he would have lost the  case for sure.  Instead, we filed objections to the lawsuit (for a very, very small fraction of the $7000 that he was charged on the other claim) and had the claim dismissed.

If you are facing a collection agency claim, generally the last place that you want to go is to a debt settlement company.  Call my office at 412-823-8003 or 1-888-536-6644 for a free, no obligation review of your claim.

The lawsuit is filed, either at the District Justice or the Court of Common Pleas. If the lawsuit is filed at the local DJ, the collection agency is hoping that you do not attend the hearing, because they will then automatically win. After they obtain the judgment, they will transfer it to the Court of Common Pleas and begin execution proceedings. It is in your best interests to notify the District Justice that you are going to defend yourself immediately upon receiving the notice of the lawsuit from them. You should have an attorney represent you at that hearing, and you should not attend.  In magistrate cases, the collection agency almost never has the proper documentation to beat you in court.  They actually need you to attend so that they can question you and use your testimony against you. Have an attorney go in your place and the results should be in your favor.

If the lawsuit is filed in the Court of Common Pleas, you will receive a visit from your county Sheriff’s Department. A Deputy Sheriff will serve the paperwork on you at your home. Upon receipt of the lawsuit, you will have twenty (20) days to file a written response to the lawsuit that is called either an Answer or Preliminary Objections.

If you fail to file the written response in the allotted time, you will have a judgment entered against you without the benefit of having a hearing. As you can see, it is of the utmost importance to respond to the lawsuit immediately, to preserve your rights to defend yourself in a court of law. That is the key to beating a collection agency, i.e. to defend yourself in court, preferably with the right attorney. There are a number of issues that the collections agency must prove to obtain a judgment against you, and they typically cannot do so, again, as long as you properly defend yourself. You must force them to produce all of the documentary evidence in their claim against you, and then poke legal holes in their case.  A knowledgeable consumer attorney can file the proper responses to the lawsuit and you very likely will never end up in a courtroom.

Contact our office at 412-823-8003 or toll free at 1-888-536-6644 for a free telephone consultation if you have any questions regarding collection agency lawsuits in Pennsylvania.