In debt? You're better off getting sued
From debt collector cubicles to the courtroom
Consumers facing serious credit card debt are, in some ways, better off getting sued rather than dealing with collections. Here are several reasons why.
First, when you are getting collection letters and phone calls from a collections agency, you are dealing with someone who doesn’t usually have a lot of authority to settle your case. Imagine what that job is like.
I know of one collection law firm that moved its offices to a warehouse with approximately 20 lawyers in the front-facing offices and a cube farm in the rear. Picture endless cubicles of people on the phone trying to collect money.
It’s got to be a miserable job. Somebody pops a stack of files on your desk and says, “Collect $100,000 by Friday, or you’re fired.” The person you’re dealing with is just calling you, taking your phone call, and trying to see whatever kind of money they can get from you.
Part of the reason they’re operating this way is because it seems—at least to me—that at this stage of the collection game, your account with the collection agency is of indeterminate, or maybe we can say “floating,” value. Let’s say you owe $10,000. The collection agency or collection law firm is trying to get whatever they can out of that account. Sure, they may take less than $10,000, but they are under no pressure or incentive to take an offer that they don’t like.
The next time they call you, or the next time you call them, maybe they will get more money than you offered. Or, maybe they’ll get less money. It’s random at this point. Therefore, the collectors don’t really have to make any difficult decisions. They just keep dialing and hoping they get you on a day when you’re feeling soft or a day when you come into some money. Their whole job is to just keep dialing and pestering you any time between 8:01 a.m. to 8:59 p.m. on a daily basis. As long as they follow the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, they can keep on calling.
Stop the phone harassment, contact an attorney
Once a lawsuit is filed, ultimately, if the case is unsettled, a trial date is going to be set by the court. That means that the creditor is finally going to be forced to make a decision.
The creditor is going to have to sit down, look at your financial information and ability to pay, and consider its cost of going to trial. It will have to evaluate the possibility of losing at trial, try to estimate its chances of collecting on a judgment if it wins at trial, and finally come to a decision about whether to take one of your offers.
Of course, my opinion that you’re better off being sued presumes that you have an attorney guide you and represent your interests through the litigation. If you’re trying to do it on your own, it’s very aggravating, often confusing, and you’re likely to either crack under the pressure to make a bad settlement or make a mistake that will doom your case.
But if you have an experienced collection defense attorney representing you, your case won’t get blown out of the water by a mistake or inexperience, and it will be the attorney who is handling all the pressure from the creditor’s law firm. The creditor has to evaluate the case differently when it knows it’s facing serious resistance from a serious lawyer and not just bullying a civilian. Plus, even though it’s never pleasant to pay money to settle a lawsuit, you will be able to take satisfaction knowing you didn’t cave in and make a bad deal just because you are out of your comfort zone while simultaneously dealing with debt, attorneys, and the court system.
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