The first thing that you need to know is that most credit card cases in Pennsylvania are being heard in front of magistrates.  Pennsylvania magistrates  have such a wide variety of cases that they cannot possibly become experts in everything.  Because of this, even the best defense against credit card cases may not work, also, the best case against them can fail.  The magistrate judge will try his or her hardest to get these right, because no judge likes to be reversed on appeal, and for the most part, the Pennsylvania magistrates really do care about their positions and how they carry out their duties.  That being said, you may not get the correct outcome at the magistrate level, and you may be forced to appeal, which will cost you more money!

The second thing that you should know is that a credit card statement on its own is not enough to prove a debt.

The third thing you should know is that you have the right to question evidence the plaintiff puts forward to prove the debt.  The problem is that when you are defending yourself and you question the plaintiff’s evidence, the opposing side may ask the question did you make these charges, or is this your debt.  You have every right to decline after the question, but the magistrate is human and that may make you look liable further debt than you actually are.

Lets suppose for a moment that you all are representing yourself against Discover card.  Discover card has hauled you in front of your local magistrate because you owe them $5000 and haven’t made a payment in twelve months.  Now let’s just say this information is accurate, and you have actually made the charges, you owe the debt, and you just can’t pay it.  In a court you are under oath, you can’t lie and say you didn’t make the charges, so that puts you in a difficult position if you want to question Discover card’s lawyer about his evidence.

This is how it usually goes when a credit card company’s attorney present evidence in court.  The attorney is going to come up to the bench and show the court 6 to 10 months worth of statements from your credit card.  He will show where you did not make payments. They are going to point out that after a certain month the credit card company stopped charging over limit fees, or did something else to make it look like they were being altruistic and giving you a chance to catch up.  Then they’re going to pull out a credit card agreement.  It’s going to be the most recent version of a document that essentially says we (Discover Card) have all the rights and you have none.  If the attorney is good, they will have highlighted the portions most damning to your case and handed directly to the judge. Finally, some attorneys like to do a little bit of legal theater, and they will pull out a credit card slip.  The credit card slip will not be yours, it will be the attorney’s.  They will tell a hokey story about how they got pastrami on rye at the deli (that’s the story I used) and how they used their credit card.  Then they will show at the bottom how it says that the cardholder agrees to the terms and conditions of the credit card agreement and agree to repay the amount charged.  The attorney will discuss tacking with the attorney, and tacking essentially means that signing that little piece of paper means that you agree to be most recent credit card agreement.  Then if the attorney is smart, he or she will rest their case, and let the hapless defendant defend himself.

This is where it gets sticky for a person who defends himself. If you’re defending yourself, you may have every reason to attack the plaintiff’s evidence, but if you risk opening yourself up to questioning if you do.  The question is: When are you acting as lawyer and when are you acting as defendant and witness.  This is how a person who defends himself gets in trouble.  The judge or magistrate will say: “do you have any questions for opposing counsel?”  the first time you ask a question you’re cooked.  If you ask, “Do you have assigned credit card agreement from me?”, the attorney may respond no it was done electronically but you did take the card right?  You’re under oath, you can’t say no.  You might ask the other lawyer “Do you have any signed credit card slips from me?” Discover Card’s lawyer will probably say “No, but you did use the card to charge right?” Again you are not allowed to lie.

The bottom line is you’re not allowed to lie.  You can say, “I’m questioning the plaintiff’s evidence, not testifying”, but that seems evasive and even though the magistrate is required to allow you to defend yourself without testifying, the magistrate is a human being and he is likely to assume that your refusal to answer means you did charge on your credit card.  Unless you’re Frank Abigail or Will Hunting ( and remember they took Will Hunting off to jail before he was bailed out by the professor), you’re probably not be able pull this off.

A judgment from a credit card company can wind up being a lien against your home in Pennsylvania, I see it everyday, so a credit card lawsuit is not a joke.  If you don’t want to go the route of bankruptcy, you need to get a lawyer to defend you.  When I defend a client against a credit card company, I can usually pick them apart, because they come unprepared.

The credit card companies lawyer usually only shows up with a couple of statements and maybe the the credit card agreement.  The agreement is rarely signed.  I’m not give away my strategy for defending these cases on-line, that comes from years of defending this type of case, and it’s also something that fits my personality in a way that I can pull off where another attorney may not able to.  I couldn’t pull a Johnny Cochrane and put a glove on my client’s hand and “Say if it does not fit then you must acquit,” but I sure can poke holes in a credit card company’s lawyer in a way that only credit card company insider can, because that’s exactly what I was, one of the top debt collectors in the country and someone with intimate knowledge of the credit card industry.

So if you’re going to defend yourself, for the love of all that is good  get a lawyer.  Don’t defend yourself, because you will probably lose, and lose badly.  While lawyer be expensive, a lien against your house is much much more expensive.  If you find yourself being sued by a credit card company and you want someone who will go toe to toe with the credit card company’s attorney, call me at 484-661-2891, or e-mail me at jim@padebt911.com, and we give the credit card company a dose of their own medicine, together.

Two of the highest rate filers are Discover Card and Capital One, with Discover Card probably outstripping Capital One at a rate of 5 to 1.

I’m not sure why they’re doing this.  In Pennsylvania, credit card companies are not able to garnish wages, however they are able to garnish bank accounts.  In my experience the average person being hauled into court for credit card debt doesn’t have more than a couple hundred dollars in a bank account at any given time, so I don’t really understand why these credit card companies are going to the expense of getting a judgment.

It can’t be to have priority in a bankruptcy proceeding because at the end of the day they still unsecured creditors in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and are probably not going to get anything.  They can’t garnish wages because as mentioned above they are not allowed to.  So why are credit card companies now suing in the Magistrate and Court of Common Pleas courts the state of Pennsylvania?

I think it’s about intimidation.  The average consumer doesn’t know that a credit card company cannot garnish wages.  The average consumer doesn’t know the credit card company can garnish a bank account.  The average consumer who has a charged off a credit card probably has other credit card debts and other debts pressuring  them, and it might be that the credit card company wants to be the first on their list to be paid.

It probably isn’t worth the day you will lose taking off from work to fight this suit.  You need a competent attorney to defend your rights, and you need one quickly.  If you owe Capital One, Discover or some other renegade credit card company$4000 and they get a judgment, and then they somehow grab it from your checking account in a garnishment, that money is gone forever.

The most important the thing about dealing with your debt problem is being in control.  It’s a roller coaster ride up and down from 0 to 150 mph in a second.  Scary eh?  What’s scarier is that you’re at the control of this roller coaster.  You can either let go a handle and let things fall the way they may, which will almost always result in your creditors taking advantage of you, or you can choose to control the situation yourself.

Before some rogue credit card company gets a judgment against you and pulls the last money you had saved out of your emergency fund, to pay for months of late fees finance charges inflated attorneys fees, you should contact an attorney who will help defend your rights.  Yes the credit card companies have rights, and they are not shy about defending them, but you have rights too, and you probably don’t have the time to defend them while you try to make it through to the end of this week.  The credit card companies have an army of attorneys to defend their rights, don’t you owe it to yourself and your family to take advantage of at least a free consultation?

When you are ready to defend yourself against rogue credit card companies, out-of-control debt collectors, and all the other financial creatures that go bump in the night, contact me at 484-661-2891 or e-mail me at Jim at padebt@911.com for your free no obligation consultation.