court document for old debt

QUESTION: I have reviewed some of the other questions online and I am still not sure what to do? A collection agency has submitted court documents to collect a debt from 1993. Ohio statute of limitations is 6 years. Would it be better to file a motion to dismiss or to request copies of the original debt or both?

ANSWER: Have you filed a response to the summons yet? If so what was the response you filed?

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: No, I haven't done anything yet.

Answer: Then that is what you need to do first of all. If I were in your situation and I have been, I would simply file a motion to dismiss with prejudice and then once the case has been dismissed I would immediately file a federal case against the attorney for misrepresenting the legal status of the debt.

It is likely that once you file a motion to dismiss with prejudice the plaintiff's lawyer will rush to the courthouse to file his own motion to dismiss because he will understand immediately that there is no possible way for him to win. He will want to dismiss without prejudice so that his client can sell or resell the debt to some other fool willing to buy such debt and that party can bring another suit if it chooses to do so or the plaintiff can simply wait a few months and file it again. That does happen and it has happened to me although the company who bought the debt after the case had been dismissed by the plaintiff's attorney realized that they couldn't hope to win a court case against me so they simply dropped the matter.

If the plaintiff dismisses his case against you rather than letting you get it dismissed with prejudice then the federal suit would be the only way you could make sure that it would never be brought up again and would be very likely to put a nice sum of cash in your pocket.


Bill Bauer
405-684-9297
405-227-9423

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If you live within driving distance of Oklahoma City you can also come to our monthly meeting of the Oklahoma City Chapter of Jurisdictionary meetings. They are held on the 2nd Thursday of each month at Coit's Root Beer Stand which is located on the corner of SW 24th & Western Ave in Oklahoma City. The meetings start promptly at 7:00 P.M. and last for 2 hours. Attendees usually arrive about half an hour early so they can enjoy a good meal at Coit's Root Beer Stand. The meetings are free and open to the public and we can discuss your problems as well if you like.

We are going to start holding mock trials so that you can learn some court room procedures.