Your Legal Leg Up©

     by Kenneth Gibert

If you're being sued, I'm sure you're scared. Everyone is. But hear this: you have a very good chance to win the suit if you stand up for yourself. Believe it or not, the odds are actually stacked in your favor if you're being sued by a company that bought debt from someone else and is suing you.

Some Very Basic Facts You Need To Know

And even more important, if you stand up for yourself, you will probably beat the debt collector even if you couldn't win the suit. Read on to see why this is true.

The Debt Collector's Problems

The debt collection company will have a lot of problems if you stand up for yourself. They bought old debt. That means they don't usually have the records they need even if you actually did owe the money. And more often than you might expect, you don't owe the money because of certain time limits. They also have certain even bigger practical difficulties that you can use to protect yourself.

FEAR-The Debt-Collector's Best Friend

Because the debt collectors would have such a hard time winning if you fight back, the debt collectors rely on the terror of the collection process to scare you into settling the case or giving up altogether. This fear of the legal process is the most important weapon the debt collectors have. If you can handle that, chances are you'll get off scott-free.

You Have Almost Nothing To Lose

Strange as it may seem, now that you’ve been dragged into this suit, most of the bad has already happened. It costs very little to fight if you do it yourself. And if the company wins, they are going to get the same thing (in almost every case) whether you fight or not. In other words, it won't get worse if you fight. And if you fight and win, as I will explain later in the section about counterclaims, not only will you not pay them anything, but they may owe you money.

In other words, you have basically nothing to lose by fighting and everything to win!

Why You Have a Chance to Win

You actually have a very good chance of winning the lawsuit filed against you- if you stand up for yourself. Look at the lawsuit filed against you-the "Petition" it's usually called. It may look like it was done carelessly, and it probably was. But the paragraphs of the petition say the things the debt company would have to prove to the court-if you stand up for yourself.

They have to prove the existence of a "contract," or some obligation for you to pay. They have to prove they own the right to sue you. And they have to prove the amount you owe. You might think they could easily do that, but in fact it is difficult if not impossible for them to prove these things. You can find out why this is so and how to make your own case in YourLegalLegUp Litigation Manual, but for now just take my word for it. It's tough for them to prove their case.

If It's So Tough For Them To Prove Their Case, Why Do They File So Many Suits?

Fear! They count on fear. They don't have to prove anything if you don't show up at court and make them do it. And the huge majority of people don't show up. A few "show up to give up." And maybe two out of a hundred debt defendants try to protect themselves.

Why You Can Probably Beat the Debt Collectors (Even If You Couldn't Win the Lawsuit!)

If you will stand up for yourself, you can probably make the debt collectors go away even if they could win the suit against you. (Which they usually can't.)

Why?

Follow the Money

It's all about money, right? They want to make money. That's why they're suing you. Iif you will defend yourself it becomes inefficiently expensive for the company to pursue the litigation against you.

Let's Do the Math

Consider the question from the point of view of the debt collectors. They buy debt cheaply (very, very cheaply), file sut in large numbers, and win the vast majority of cases without a fight. In St. Louis County, the "call dockets" often have 300-600 defendants, most of whom are being sued by a handful of debt collectors represented by two or three lawyers. If it takes an hour or two for the lawyers to get one hundred judgments totaling (by my guess) approximately $400,000 to $1,000,000 dollars, that’s a pretty good hour’s work.

Now look at the Petition in your lawsuit, down at the last paragraph near the end (where it says “wherefore, plaintiff prays...”). If the company is asking for attorney’s fees against you at all, they’ll usually say so right in the “wherefore clause,” and you may be surprised at how small the number is. In Missouri, the number is typically 15% of what they're suing you for. If the company is suing you for $5,000, the attorney’s fees might be around $750, but that’s only if they are suing on a contract that allows attorney’s fees. In fact there is often no request for attorney fees at all in the suit.

They ask for the same amount whether or not you fight.

If you don’t fight the case, they get a windfall. If you do fight the case, they usually don’t get any more money even if they win. Instead of hoping for several hundred thousand dollars per hour of work, they're trying to get $150 per hour-if that. That's a lot less fun.

And if they are not suing you on a contract that specifically provides for attorney’s fees, they don’t get any fees for fighting no matter how long it takes. Every second you make them spend fighting with you costs them money that they will not get back. Everybody on the other side knows all this, and they never forget it. Neither should you.

What Would You Do...

What would you do if you were a debt collector who was bogged down in a suit for a few hundred (or even thousand) dollars-but which could cost just as much in attorneys fees. And on the other hand you could make a hundred thousand dollars in an hour of work by picking out other people to sue? Debt collectors are practical people. If you stand up for yourself in a way that shows them they will have a real fight on their hands, they will usually drop the suit. It isn't worth it with so many other people around who will not fight. Isn't that what you would do?

What To Do Now

If you can see that you will have an excellent chance of protecting yourself by standing up for yourself, click here to learn more about YourLegalLegUp Litigation Manual.