Normally, being harassed and sued by debt collectors isn’t a pleasant experience. But if you’re buried under private student loans you can’t repay, being sued may actually be a good thing—if you handle the situation in the right way.
DannLaw’s experienced attorneys know how to turn the table on lenders and debt buyers like National Collegiate Trust (NCT), Navient, and TERI. If you’re being sued because you failed to make payments or defaulted on your private student loan, contact us to arrange a free initial consultation. When we talk we’ll be able to determine if we can help you.
Before you call, here are some things you need to know:
- For the most part, we can only help you resolve issues related to private student loans.
- Unlike the federal government, private student loan lenders and debt buyers must sue you and win before they can garnish your wages or seize your property. No matter how many threats collection agencies make via phone or letter, they can’t touch your assets unless and until they win a judgment against you in court.
- Being sued isn’t the same as having a judgment issued against you. When a lender files suit against you, they’re taking the first step in what may be a lengthy and complicated legal process that could end with the lender losing the case or agreeing to negotiate a settlement for less than you owe. That’s why being sued by your private lender may be a good thing—if you do the right things.
Class may we have your attention please…
This is where you need to pay attention because we’re going to discuss important issues related to the law and rules that govern court proceedings. Screw up and the opportunity to deal with your private student loan in a positive way will be gone in an instant, the blink of an eye, quicker than you can count to three.
Got it?
Good.
Important dos and don’ts
- Do respond if you receive a notice that your lender or a debt buyer like National Collegiate Trust has filed suit against you.
- Don’t confuse a letter from a court saying you’re being sued with a letter from a collection agency threatening to sue. The letter from court means the lender’s pulled the trigger and the clock is running.
- Do yourself a favor: open all the letters you receive from court and do what they say to do when they say to do it. When you receive the first letter notifying you that a suit has been filed you’ll have only 28 days to respond. Don’t wait until the last day. Take our word for it, we learned this in law school, the deadline to respond is not a suggestion, it’s a deadline, as in miss it and your ability to fight the suit is dead.
- Here’s a little secret: companies like NCT count on the fact that most borrowers are going to ignore letters from court. This makes them very happy. Try really hard to not make them happy.
- Don’t live down to your lender’s expectations. If you do a judge will issue a default judgment against you. You really don’t want this to happen. If it does, it’s game over. Your lender will have the legal right to dig into your pockets for years and believe us, that’s not where you want them to be. One other thing, the judgment won’t just be for the money you owe on your loan, it may well include interest, court costs and other charges.
Next Steps
If you take our free advice, which is worth way more than you paid for it, and don’t allow your lender to obtain a default judgment, here’s what you should do next: contact us. Seriously, you should, because we’ll give you some more free advice on what to do going forward.
When you call, we’ll take some time to discuss your situation and determine if you have options. If you do, we’ll tell you what they are. We’ll also tell you how much we’re going to charge for helping you exercise them. Hey, we have student loans too and we have to make a living.
Here’s what we won’t do: we won’t tell you we can help if we can’t. We’ll say we feel bad for you and wish you the best, but we won’t charge you a dime for our time.
If we can help, you should look at our fee as an investment in the future—a future that may be free of the worry and anguish caused by your private student loans.
Can We Win?
While getting out from under your private student loan debt may seem like a hopeless cause, there are a number of effective defenses we use to win suits filed by lenders and debt buyers. Trust us, they can work:
- The holder of your private loans waited too long to sue you.
- You were the victim of identity theft and never agreed to pay the debt.
- You paid what you owed on the loan, but the loan holder failed to credit your account.
- The loan holder is suing you for more than you agreed to pay on the debt.
- You were unable to finish your program of education because your school closed, or you qualify for another type of loan cancellation.
- Your school fraudulently obtained the loans in your name.
- You discharged the debt in a bankruptcy proceeding.
- The loan holder failed to provide proof that it has the legal right to sue you to collect the debt.
And here’s something else: as we investigate your case we may discover that your lender or a debt collector violated the consumer protection laws in the course of trying to get you to pay. If they did, we’ll sue them and if we’re successful you’ll get some cash.
SWEET!
No Guarantees–well OK, one guarantee
You’ve probably noticed that we use the words “may” and “can” when we talk about what we can do to help you. We do that for a few reasons: first, because every situation is different we won’t know how strong a case you have until we talk to you; second, legal ethics, which we take really seriously around here, prohibit us from promising you a positive outcome; and third, because you should absolutely run away from anyone who does guarantee they will win your case. No one can or should make that type of promise.
There is, however, one thing we can guarantee: if you ignore the fact that your private student loan lender or a debt buyer has filed suit against you the situation is only going to get worse.
At the very least, give Atty. Emily White a call at 614-705-0107 or shoot her an email at [email protected]. Her office hours are 9:00 AM to 1: 00 PM EST, Monday through Friday. She’ll be happy to talk to you so we can figure out if we can make things better.
Remember, calling or emailing won’t cost you a dime.
Guaranteed.
