My question involves judgment recovery in the State of: Utah
I had some NSF charges from a bank that went to collections. I disputed the charges but the bank eventually stated I did not respond quick enough to their requests for additional information. Suit has been filed by the collection company. I filed an answer and court date is now set for 10/30/08, 2 weeks.
I've not had much time to work on this and am just now sending in my discovery and interrogatory request. I'm sure the plaintiff attorney will object due to the timing but I'm hoping I will be able to speak to the judge and explain that I'm not an attorney and ask for some consideration.
My question is this... the only thing the collection company sent in with the Complaint was a copy of the Deposit Agreement and an assigment of collections from the bank. I would think they should need to produce a document from the bank confirming in some way that the debt is valid. Otherwise I could just ask for a Summary Judgement as they have not been able to show that I even have a debt with the bank. I'm guessing that they will produce this when we go to court? Can they submit this information if it's not been disclosed prior to court? This is District Court, not Small Claims Court.
One reason I'm asking is that I want to send in a Sworn Denial (I'm not sure I can still do this as it's been months since the Complaint was filed <-???) but I wonder if I should as then the attorney would have a chance to put together all the documentation. I'm wondering if it might be better to hope/pray that she does not have that info with her. But she has a lot of experience, I think she knows exactly how to win these cases so I doubt she would forget something like that.
The other issue I have is how I can question the Bank itself as they've assigned the debt to 3rd party so the bank does not need to show up. That is why I wanted to file a Sworn Denial, so they would have to be there. I realize I could probably subpoena them but I don't have a clue how to do that and there is probably not enough time.
These collection agencies certainly have the upper hand. They can afford to hire attorneys as the attorney only charge is the defendant has to pay. While the defendants probably can't afford to pay an attorney and we have no idea how District Court works. The chips are certainly stacked against us.
Just a note: it was 3 NSF charges that amounted to about $216. I disputed those charges and offered to pay the $50 as the deposit agreement required on disputed charges but they would not take it. We went to mediation and I offered $200. They came back with $417. I offered $250 and then $300 but they would not take less then $417. It's the $250 in attorneys fees that the attorney would not come off of that killed the mediation. I'd rather risk a judgment and $117 more then offer $417 on a $216 debt. Had I known then what I know now, I would have paid the $216 and collected the $65 from the company that charged my account in error.

