Everyone,
Here's the solution to having your bank account frozen or getting a wage garnishment filed against you by Eltman or any other debt buyer.
First, for those of us in NY, you have 180 days (or six months) to file a "Show Cause" motion in the court where the judgement was defaulted to. It's a very easy process. You go to the court clerk and tell them that you have no idea that this case was bough against you. They will ask for the index number of the case or look it up for you. They will then file the correct forms and you'll need to see the judge. You will then get a court date where you testify that you were never served.
Chances are, no one will be there to rebut but if they do show up, you can then rebut their "Affidavit of Service" because you were never served. The "Affidative of Service" has details as to who, where and how YOU were supposedly served. Since they lied about the whole thing, chances are they won't show up and perjur themsleves further. When they don't show up to the hearing, the judgement is vacated and your account freezing and garnishments will be orderd to stop.
Now you will have a trial date for the original case and guess what? Since Eltman is a debt buyer, they cannot refute the fact that you have a business relationship with them. This is true if:
-You have never heard from/of them
-You have never made any payments to them
-You weren't allowed the chance to have this "debt" verified
In your fist motion, see above, you'll need to write one of the reasons you think you don't owe them any money is that "I have no business relationship with the plaintiff." This means you never signed a contract or agreed to a payment agreement with them. Furthermore, if you legitimately don't owe this debt, you can state that you don't owe the debt in the first palce to the originator.
Even if you get to trial and they show up, they still have to come up with the actual signed document that you agreed to in the first place. This is basic contract law. They cannot state because they have assumed or bought the debt from another party that they can collect on it and NOT have the original contract and the burden will then shift to them. There's a good chance they will never show up to court anyway.
In my case, I just found out about an income execution about a month ago from a case where I allegedly defaulted and went through the above process to have this judgement vacated.
Things to remember is NOT to have ANY phone contact with this people. DO NOT give them ANY personal information, banking account numbers or work information. If they have a judgement, they will use it to colllect on your property and are within their rights if you do not contest the judgement.
The important part is to contest the judgement as soon as you possibly can. Don't feel because you had a bad debt you are now indebted to these creeps. If the account is very old, over 6 years, then the statute of limitations prevents anyone from collecting on it. So the debt buyers buy it soon after and then illegally claim the debt is new. This is against the law but will go unchallenged if you do not contest.
Go here for some good information as to where to start:
http://www.nedap.org/hotline/defenses.html
http://www.creditinfocenter.com/rebuild/debt_validation. Shtml
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