Looking for some advice as to what should be our next step.
A brief history... My wife and I were contacted by a collection agency representing LVNV Funding in February about an account in the amount of $6,800.00 that we know nothing about nor belongs to us.
We were first contacted by the Collection Agency Central Credit Services out of Florida, we immediately sent them a certified letters asking for validation and got no response.
Then we were contacted by another collection agency, Resurgent Capitol Services out of South Carolina, each of us sent another certified letter asking for validation and again got no response
Then we were contacted by Weltman, Reinberg and Ries, a collection agency/attorney in Ohio, once again we sent certified letters asking for validation with no response.
Finally we were contacted by Love, Beal and Nixon, collection agency/attorney in our home state of Oklahoma. We sent certified letters to them asking for validation and got one letter back, addressed only to me and not my wife. This so-called validation was just a printout stating that I owed them this money, a name and address of HSBC and an original account number that I have no record of ever having.
In each of these instances we sent certified letters back stating that they had failed to validate the debt and that they must cease and desist and remove it from our credit reports. We have copies of all the letters and return receipts.
On November 12 we were served with a Complaint and Petition notifying us we were being sued by LVNV Funding LLC, and they are represented by attorneys Love, Beal and Nixon.
On November 19 we filed our answer with the District Court Clerk in the proper format denying every point on the petition demanding strict proof. We also stated our affirmative defenses and once again asked for proper validation. I recieved the exact same letter they sent to me before, again only to me with only my name on it, no mention of my wife or no seperate letter to her as an answer to the validation request.
There is no doubt in my mind that if properly handled we will defeat these con-men but I want to make sure we do the right thing, short of hiring an attorney to represent us. If this gets to far in and over our heads we will definately hire an attorney but at the moment from the research we have done we feel we can handle this Pro-se.
My question is, what should be our next step? Wait for the Plaintiff to respond to our Answer? Should we file a Motion for Discovery or go straight to a Motion to Dismiss? If we file a Motion for Discovery what should we ask for?
Thank you in advance to any and all who might offer some advice.
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