Being sued by Capital One Bank NA

[In_Trouble_in_TX]

Hi, I have been looking over theese forums for a bit now, and I have found that a lot of you help each other. I have a bit of a problem and I am not sure what to do. I have read the below link:

edit: ok, it won't let me post this link either, even though it is a link to a thread on this website. sorry

I have 2 Capital One accounts that are old (a credit card, and a Loan) and I am not sure which one this is. If it is the credit card, based off of the limited information I have been able to find, it appears as if the suit was filed 2 days after the SOL was up. If it's the loan, it looks like they beat the SOL by 2 months.

I have had my suspicions that I was being sued for about 2 weeks as I started getting "junk" advertisement mail from attorneys to defend me against the suit. I usually chunk such mail in the trash, but I was getting quite a bit of it, so I thought maybe they knew something I didn't know.
Last night my wife got home to a orange sticker on our front door that said investigation in big letters on the top. It had a business car attached to it of a Process Server......so that pretty much confirmed it.

I have been going to this website:
edit: it won't let me post this link, but it is a harris county district clerk record and document online search.
and searching everyday for it to show up. Some of the junk mail I have gotten has case numbers on it, and they are all the same, but it doesn't show my information on there, even when I search by name or anything.

I used to have really good credit, and made good money, but that was over 5 years ago. When I lost my job back then, I called everyone I owed for help. The ones that worked with me, I continued to pay, the ones that didn't want to work with me, I had to stop paying. Capital One was one of the ones that not only wouldn't work with me, but also told me that since I called, I became high risk and they would now increase my minimum payments. I stopped making paymetns all together to them at that point.

During the past 5 years, I have continued to make payments on time to:
My mortgage, on time every month.
My wife's car, on time every month and it is now paid off (low payments of $254.50)
My only remaining credit card with my Credit Union, on time every month, the minimum, and I still owe around $9,000 on it.

that is really all I owe other than regular bills.

things that have not been paid on for 4 years:

Capital One credit card: was around $9,500, now I get CA letters for around $22,000

Capital One loan- was around $18,000, now I get letters from CA's for around $33,000

Chase Visa-was around $9,000. I have not gotten any letters or attempts to collect.

I have not had any contact with anyone from CA or the OC in the past 4 years.


So, now I'm being sued by one of the Capital One companys, I do not know which. I do not have any money for a lawyer, I actually operate in the negative each month and do what ever kinds of jobs I can to make it work. I'm not a bum, I do not get any kind of help from anyone or any institution, and I work 60+ hours a week....My wife and I just don't make enough money. I really don't have any assets. Savings is empty, House is still being paid on, the cars I own aren't worth much at all. I have no 401k or any other investments. I really just don't know what's going to happen, or what I can do. Any advice would be helpful, sorry about the book I wrote in here

[jjgross]

In your cc agreement see what state they use for law,if its utah i believe its only 3 years in utah for sol,not certain or if they have a choice of law.

[In_Trouble_in_TX]

I thought the law applied to the state which I was in?
I don't have the cc agreement, That card was opened sometime in the late 90's (If I remember correctly)

[jjgross]

Not always it will say in their card agreement which state it will use,if it says nothing then the state your in will cover it.Texas is a very consumer friendly state and has much more consumer protection.Go on the state web site and study that.

[In_Trouble_in_TX]

OK, I found out my account was opened in 01' I do not have the credit card agreement as it was a long time ago.

I spoke with the process server and we will be meeting up soon for her to serve both my wife, and me.

I got my credit reports, I probably need to get them for my wife as well. They really weren't as bad I I thought they would be.

[In_Trouble_in_TX]

I met with the lawyer in person on Friday. His one hour free turned into 3 hours. He is split 50/50 on wether I should file Bankruptcy or not. He kept going back and forth since I am already 4 years into the "battle". He knows I really do not want to file bankruptcy, and he sat with me going over all the pros and cons of fighting the suit or filing. He said it is a really tough decision. He said with out a doubt I qualify for chapter 7 because I fall well below the median, especially with all the exemptions I have.

It will cost me $2000 to fight this case, and I might not win because it seems to be the original creditor, but he did say they did not attach any documents to the service papers, which might mean they do not have anything and they could be trying to bluff me.

He also told me that even though the other account is past SOL, they could still file a suit and I would have to get a lawyer to defend, even though it "should" get thrown out after that. There is also another that is not quite past the SOL, and they still have time to file.

Bankruptcy would cost me $3000 to file, and I have to produce that quickly (within the next 2 weeks) I am even more stressed out than I was before the meeting. I have no idea what to do.

[Trish]

So the one that will cost 2k to fight is still within SOL? Are you sure?
When was the date of first delinquency?

Also, were you served properly? Every state's laws are different.....you should check to make sure they did it correctly.

Look here:
Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, Process Serving Laws ? ServeNow.com

[In_Trouble_in_TX]

The lawyer told me between $1,500 and $2,000, I figured it would be the later.

I'm not sure what the first delinquency was (I'm assuming that means the first time I was late or missed a payment) I do know the last time I paid them anything, or had any contact with them was mid October, 2005. and they filed sept 17th.

I will read the laws on serving to see if they did it right.

[Trish]

Is this debt being reported on your CRs? If you cannot find the DOFD (and yes you are right - date of first missed payment/date of first delinquency in which your acct never again became current) in your records, then you can check your reports. If you do not see the date on your CRs, the CRAs will have it.....you can call them up and ask them.

SOL in Tx is 4 years so if it was 2005, you need to find that EXACT date to see if it is possibly out of SOL.

[In_Trouble_in_TX]

Trish.....I love you for making me look at these reports again. With 2 Capital Ones, I got them mixed up. They are about the same amounts. The one they are suing me for had a last paid date of August 2005, listed on both the Expeiran and the Equifax reports. I need to check my records, but if I confirm this it will be a lot better.

The laywer said it's still a fight and companies sue past the SOL all the time, but I feel that this really helps.

Thank you thank you thank you

****jumps up and down like a giddy school boy.