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Proof of Debt | Orange County Bankruptcy

Gregory M. Fitzgerald | 371 Views | 04/11/2016

Proof of Debt

Hi, my name is Greg Fitzgerald. I am an attorney in California, been practicing law for 22 years in California. And my firm Fitzgerald Campbell is dedicated to debtors’ rights, and as a part of our debtor protection settlement plan, what I want to talk to you today about is proof of debt. A critical component to our plan to get you out of debt and to get you out of debt for as little money as possible, is proof of debt. And by proof of debt, I am not referring to verification of debt, or validation of debt, or those sorts of tools. Those are tools that are available, laws that are available to you, and we do use those. But I’m talking about getting you out of debt for as little as possible. So when I’m referring to proof of debt, I’m talking about the status of what claim they have. Remember, they just have a claim. Nothing’s been proven. There is no judgment against you. So as we stand here today, the law doesn’t recognize that as a claim that you must pay. Only after it was reduced to a judgment does the law say that you are legally are obligated.

So as we stand here today, you are not legally obligated to pay that debt. It’s a critical distinction that many people tend to forget, particularly your creditors and collectors. So today, unless you have a judgment against you, today it is merely a claim. That is akin to somebody who’s been charged with a crime. They’re innocent until proven guilty. You’re innocent. You don’t owe this money until they prove that you, in fact, owe the amount of money. Same thing applies – different standard of proof, perhaps – but the same legal determination has yet to be made, so they only have a claim. All they can do – and by “they” I mean creditors and collectors who’re trying to get money from you – all they can do is ask. All they can do is try to reach out to you and say, “Hey, remember that money that we say you owed us. Can you give it? Can you pay us?” That’s all they can do. Or not. If you’re represented by counsel, they can’t even do that. They can’t communicate with you, of course, if you have a legal representative. So barring that, if you don’t have a lawyer, all they can do is ask you to please, please, please pay. They haven’t proven anything at all. Once we’re retained, in addition to stopping the contact, we insist upon proof of the debt, and not just that the debt exists or that you had an account – with Discover Card, for example – but as to how much is owed and how they established that amount of money. We demand a level of court proof. We’re not looking for just some documentation that says you had an account, like a validation or a verification of debt. We want court proof.

Settlement Plan

We want to see what they got that if they showed to a judge may lead and get them to the judgment that they may want to pursue. So we’re looking for court proof. Most won’t, or can’t, provide that level of documentation. Most don’t have it. Debt buyers generally don’t have it. Others won’t give it to you for whatever reason. They’re used to calling. They used to you just paying them. So they can’t, or they won’t, provide the court proof necessary. And when they can’t, and when you’re represented by a firm like Fitzgerald and Campbell, again, what they’ll do is they’ll transfer the debt to somebody else. They’ll either sell it, or sit on it, or do nothing with it. A high percentage of accounts don’t go anywhere once you have a lawyer that is representing you, one, and, two, is demanding the level of proof necessary to turn this claim into a legal obligation that you must pay, otherwise known as a judgment. The one thing that they can do is they can sue. They can sue. They can go to court. My attitude is, “Great. Bring it.” We look forward to what they’re going to be able to prove, or not prove, in the court. We look forward to the court review of what materials they have that establish what you owe, if anything. If they’ve got the proof, then fantastic. We will work with them. We’ll talk to them. That’s why we have it called the settlement plan. If they got the proof. Most times they will not have the proof. So what I want you to remember out of this video today, most importantly, is they just have a claim. There’s nothing they can do to you with a claim. They can’t garnish wages. They can’t attach any property, put leans on any property, or seize any bank accounts. None of that can happen until they go to court and win. So what we at Fitzgerald Campbell do is we insist upon the court proof prior to it going to court. Most – 80, 90% – of those claimants will go away, transfer, not even bother to try to do that. The remaining claimants that will sue, we suggest that our attitude and your attitude should be, “Prove it. Fine. Let’s take a look.” If they can prove it, we’ll take to them about resolving it and paying it. So always remember a claim is not proof of debt.

Always remember you don’t owe them any amount of money until they go to the court and the judge says you owe them some money. Before that, there’s really absolutely nothing they can do to take anything from you, and if you have a lawyer, they can’t even call you. I want to thank you for watching the video. I want to encourage you to check out our website, watch some of our other videos, learn more about our debtor protection settlement plan, and give us a call. Consultations are free. I would be happy to talk to you. We really want to help. Thank you.

By: Gregory M. Fitzgerald

Proof of Debt | Orange County Bankruptcy

Proof of Debt

Hi, my name is Greg Fitzgerald. I am an attorney in California, been practicing law for 22 years in California. And my firm Fitzgerald Campbell is dedicated to debtors’ rights, and as a part of our debtor protection settlement plan, what I want to talk to you today about is proof of debt. A critical component to our plan to get you out of debt and to get you out of debt for as little money as possible, is proof of debt. And by proof of debt, I am not referring to verification of debt, or validation of debt, or those sorts of tools. Those are tools that are available, laws that are available to you, and we do use those. But I’m talking about getting you out of debt for as little as possible. So when I’m referring to proof of debt, I’m talking about the status of what claim they have. Remember, they just have a claim. Nothing’s been proven. There is no judgment against you. So as we stand here today, the law doesn’t recognize that as a claim that you must pay. Only after it was reduced to a judgment does the law say that you are legally are obligated.

So as we stand here today, you are not legally obligated to pay that debt. It’s a critical distinction that many people tend to forget, particularly your creditors and collectors. So today, unless you have a judgment against you, today it is merely a claim. That is akin to somebody who’s been charged with a crime. They’re innocent until proven guilty. You’re innocent. You don’t owe this money until they prove that you, in fact, owe the amount of money. Same thing applies – different standard of proof, perhaps – but the same legal determination has yet to be made, so they only have a claim. All they can do – and by “they” I mean creditors and collectors who’re trying to get money from you – all they can do is ask. All they can do is try to reach out to you and say, “Hey, remember that money that we say you owed us. Can you give it? Can you pay us?” That’s all they can do. Or not. If you’re represented by counsel, they can’t even do that. They can’t communicate with you, of course, if you have a legal representative. So barring that, if you don’t have a lawyer, all they can do is ask you to please, please, please pay. They haven’t proven anything at all. Once we’re retained, in addition to stopping the contact, we insist upon proof of the debt, and not just that the debt exists or that you had an account – with Discover Card, for example – but as to how much is owed and how they established that amount of money. We demand a level of court proof. We’re not looking for just some documentation that says you had an account, like a validation or a verification of debt. We want court proof.

Settlement Plan

We want to see what they got that if they showed to a judge may lead and get them to the judgment that they may want to pursue. So we’re looking for court proof. Most won’t, or can’t, provide that level of documentation. Most don’t have it. Debt buyers generally don’t have it. Others won’t give it to you for whatever reason. They’re used to calling. They used to you just paying them. So they can’t, or they won’t, provide the court proof necessary. And when they can’t, and when you’re represented by a firm like Fitzgerald and Campbell, again, what they’ll do is they’ll transfer the debt to somebody else. They’ll either sell it, or sit on it, or do nothing with it. A high percentage of accounts don’t go anywhere once you have a lawyer that is representing you, one, and, two, is demanding the level of proof necessary to turn this claim into a legal obligation that you must pay, otherwise known as a judgment. The one thing that they can do is they can sue. They can sue. They can go to court. My attitude is, “Great. Bring it.” We look forward to what they’re going to be able to prove, or not prove, in the court. We look forward to the court review of what materials they have that establish what you owe, if anything. If they’ve got the proof, then fantastic. We will work with them. We’ll talk to them. That’s why we have it called the settlement plan. If they got the proof. Most times they will not have the proof. So what I want you to remember out of this video today, most importantly, is they just have a claim. There’s nothing they can do to you with a claim. They can’t garnish wages. They can’t attach any property, put leans on any property, or seize any bank accounts. None of that can happen until they go to court and win. So what we at Fitzgerald Campbell do is we insist upon the court proof prior to it going to court. Most – 80, 90% – of those claimants will go away, transfer, not even bother to try to do that. The remaining claimants that will sue, we suggest that our attitude and your attitude should be, “Prove it. Fine. Let’s take a look.” If they can prove it, we’ll take to them about resolving it and paying it. So always remember a claim is not proof of debt.

Always remember you don’t owe them any amount of money until they go to the court and the judge says you owe them some money. Before that, there’s really absolutely nothing they can do to take anything from you, and if you have a lawyer, they can’t even call you. I want to thank you for watching the video. I want to encourage you to check out our website, watch some of our other videos, learn more about our debtor protection settlement plan, and give us a call. Consultations are free. I would be happy to talk to you. We really want to help. Thank you.

By: Gregory M. Fitzgerald