can they do this?

[svazquez22]

a few years ago, i received a notice that a judgment was being asked for an old credit card debt. i immediately tried to mail in a certified payment with all of my information, so as to create a payment plan. i never heard back, and the payment was never cashed so i called the law office, who was suing, and again asked for a payment plan. they flat out refused and told me the judgment would go forward and that any time for "negotiation was over".

since the judgment has went through, i have never been garnished, my bank account never touched, and have not heard anything about the outstanding debt. (during that time i was able to pay down or off most of my other debts and am now able to make a payment plan that i can contractually agree upon.) except, i can not get anyone from the office to discuss the matter with me. they will not contact me back via mail, or telephone. i assume they are looking to continue adding interest to the debt, considering the amount now owed is somewhere around 4x the amount of the original debt.
i contacted the clerk's office in the city which the judgment was filed, and they say that i am not able to make any payments through the court system, which doesn't make much sense since the interest is still accruing at the state/city chosen rate... is this so? many of the books and websites i have consulted have stated that i am and should be able to make payments through the clerks office since i can not seem to get the matter discussed with the credit card company's people. i am afraid that the lawyers will let this debt continue to gain momentum but i want and need to begin paying, what can i do?

[jpg7n16]

I'd suggest you stop contacting their attorney, and start contacting your own.

Give him/her all the info you gave us. Document the payment. Document the interactions. Destroy them in court.

[Nightfly]

Take all of the contact information that you have and file against them in a small claims court, local to you. Don't bother with an attorney just yet - you'll be spending money on something that so far might not be necessary. Sue them for failure to produce proof of your liability and/or failure to resolve the situation. They aren't responding to your good faith efforts to close this, so now you need to make it their problem. Once they get a court summons, they may start playing ball with you. You need to start putting them on the defensive.

However, the alternative is to do nothing. You really shouldn't lose sleep over someone that refuses to take your money. Why deal with this at all? When a judgement is rendered, the court issuing the judgement is not really involved any more. I've been on both sides of judgements myself, so I know. The burden of collection is on the party who won the judgement. Since this party supposedly won a judgement against you, but doesn't want your money, remove them from your life. Contact all three credit bureaus via annualcreditreport.com and dispute the negative account, then get it removed from your reports.

By the way, to all lurkers: collection agencies/scumbags are world-class at fictionalizing original real debt balances and then inflating them. Those inflated balances are meant to scare and cause a reaction (and it's working here). If you want to pay a dead, charged-off balance - then remember: the collection company contacting you paid mere pennies on the dollar for your account, along with dozens of others at the same time. They are playing a numbers game that at least one of you debtors will be panicked enough to pay them in full. It's bull, and the amounts are negotiable.

[lexi_kaye]

I almost hate to bring this up, being I am a firm believer in you pay the debts you owe. However, how long has it been since this original debt was incurred or that you made a payment on it? It might vary by state, but there is a certain time period that they can collect on it. If you do not acknowledge the debt by making a payment on it, and that time period elapses, you do not owe on the debt. If they truly have obtained a judgement, this might be a whole different scenario but I have heard of debt collectors threatening all kinds of things in hopes it will scare you into paying up.

[svazquez22]

i dont have a problem paying the debt. i certainly owe it, and made attempts to make a payment plan before this went as far as it has gone. they did get a court ordered judgment against me, which is still accruing interest at the state set level--5% annually, which is why i wonder about them continuing to ignore me to collect more. i have had two jobs in the years since this began and both would have been found should they have went to the social security administration or whomever about collecting/garnishing. they have not attempted to collect my tax return, (which was very small) but still.

i will be looking into a representative to begin dealing with them. i dont mean that i will get serious lawyers involved or anything but i am hoping that if they are discussing it with someone else we may be able to get some kind of deal worked out, though i imagine once a judgment is set that there is no negotiating from that court rendered amount? i have done some research on this particular law office and they have a terrible reputation for harassment, and doing some shady things, so hopefully i can avoid any more of that by having someone on my side.