This pertains to the State of MD:

I received a court date a month ago for an $800 debt from Midland Collections. I went to court the end of May but disputed the debt with the court, the judge was not present, just a bunch of Midland Reps. They gave me a new court date for Jul 1 but 5 days prior to my court date I received a letter from a Court Mediation Company. I called them and they agreed that they would settle my debt with Midland for a $225 fee for half the price and a judgement, lien, etc would be avoided. I asked them specifically if I needed to go to court and she told me, no, they would be my power of attorney and I did NOT need to go to court. I signed papers and gave the Court Mediation Service $225. All of a sudden, today, I received a summons from the court saying the plaintiff won a default judgement and I have 30 days to file a a motion to vacate judgement. I tried calling the mediation office and they have not returned my call. I think I've been ripped off. If I had known, I would have gone to court and avoided the default judgement.

My question is, Can I file the motion to vacate with this argument? Should I contact the Attorney General to let them know I've been ripped off? I do not want a judgement on my report which could have been avoided by trusting a sham company.