The first situation in which you may be sued directly by your credit card company is if you break the terms of the contract. Obtaining a credit card requires your agreement to understand the terms and conditions of using the credit card. This agreement outlines your rights and responsibilities as a credit card holder, as well as the rights and responsibilities of the credit card issuer. Everything is detailed in this document, including how the rates and fees work and a card member agreement which states that you will be making timely payments.
If your debt goes unpaid long enough, your credit card company will do their best to minimize their losses by selling your debt to a collections agency before they try to sue you. When this happens, legal ownership of your debt is transferred from the credit card company to the debt collector. The debt itself may be bought and resold several times before it reaches a debt collection attorney, who may then sue you in state court if you fail to settle your debt. This is where it is important to have a credit card debt attorney on your side.
Our firm has been tremendously successful at helping our clients who have been sued for credit card debt. In most cases we can get the lawsuit completely dismissed. In fact, we can usually also turn around and sue the party that originally sued you for violations under federal statutes such as the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act. In sum, by contacting our firm, there is a possibility that we can completely turn the tables on the company that is suing you and make them PAY YOU!
At Jibrael Law we understand the deceiving practices used by credit card companies and collection agencies to take more than you owe. If you are facing a lawsuit over credit card debt, call 1-844-JIBRAEL for aggressive legal representation.
If a credit card company is suing you to collect a debt, defenses to credit card collection lawsuits that may potentially apply to your case include:
There are state and federal requirements on how summons and complaints are delivered to start the lawsuit. If a credit card company fails to serve you with the summons and complaint correctly, you can claim this procedural defect in your defense.
In some states, credit card debt collectors must file a collection lawsuit within four years of acknowledgment of the debt or the last payment. If it has been four years or longer since the time you made either a purchase or payment on your credit card, you could argue that the statute of limitations has ended and the credit card company’s lawsuit may be dismissed for being too late.
The FDCPA is a federal law that requires debt collectors to abide by specific rules when attempting to collect a debt. For instance, debt collectors must provide you with validation of your debt when you ask for it and halt collection activities until they do. If a credit card collection lawsuit has been brought against you, you may claim an FDCPA violation in response and use the compensation awarded to offset your debt.
If the debt collector suing you is not the credit card company, it must demonstrate that it has the legal right to sue you on behalf of the credit card company. If the debt collector cannot provide the necessary documentation to prove a purchase agreement for your specific account, the lawsuit may be thrown out.
Payment is often a valid defense to any collection action, even if you paid another party. For instance, if the credit card company sold your debt and you mistakenly paid the wrong company, the new owner of your debt may have to acquire the payment from the original credit card company if you were not given sufficient notice of the debt transfer.
If filing bankruptcy appropriately discharged your credit card debt, you are not responsible for paying the discharged debt any longer. As a result, you may assert the discharge in bankruptcy as a defense to the lawsuit.
This defense relates to cases of identity theft or when someone steals your credit card. If you have been the victim of credit card or identity theft, you may be eligible to assert the fraud credit card charges as a defense to the suit.
If you are sued for a credit card debt you do not owe because you were mistaken for another person with a similar or same name who indeed owes the debt, you can claim a mistaken identity as your defense.
Several of these credit card collection defenses are incredibly technical and complex, which demands the help of experienced and dependable legal assistance to advocate for you in legal proceedings.
At The Law Offices of Jibrael S. Hindi, we realize the stress involved when debt collectors forcefully pursue credit card debt collection. Our firm has been tremendously successful at helping our clients who have been sued for credit card debt. In most cases, we can get the lawsuit completely dismissed. We may also sue the party that initially sued you for violations under federal statutes, such as the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act. In sum, by contacting our firm, there is a possibility that we can completely turn the tables on the company that is suing you and make them PAY YOU, including all attorney fees. At Jibrael Law, we understand the deceiving practices used by credit card companies and collection agencies to take more than you owe. If you are facing a lawsuit over credit card debt, call 1-844-JIBRAEL or complete a contact form for aggressive legal representation.
Get In Touch With UsHonor. Integrity. Care.
