So I have a rather long-winded description of my situation, so hopefully you'll bear with me.
A collection judgment was issued against me in California in 1999 after I defaulted on a Sears credit card. I left California that year and moved to New York State. I had no idea a judgment was issued against me.
I learned of the judgment last summer (i.e., summer 2010, about 10.5 years after the judgment was issued) when a New York law firm (Forster and Garbus) sent my bank an information subpoena and my bank removed nearly $7000 from one of my accounts. By this time I was living in Pennsylvania. I called Forster and Garbus to figure out what was going on, and they claimed they had a judgment against me for $9600 and asked me to settle for $6200 (which seemed strange to me since they already froze more than that, and was the first clue, in my opinion, that something didn't seem right). I told them I was not giving them a penny and that they would be hearing from my lawyer. An hour later they called me back and claimed that their judgment was from New York State and that since I now lived in PA that they could not enforce it. So they sent my bank a message and told them to give me my money back. I was extremely happy (for obvious reasons). I had my money back within 2-3 days.
Soon after, my bank sent me a copy of the document they received from the law firm. The doc stated that they had a judgment against me in New York State (it listed the city court from the city in which I lived, and looked official enough). However...there was something strange about the document. In particular, the date of the supposed judgment was given as "2099"...and it was listed this way in not one but two different areas. The other thing that seemed strange is that they correctly listed the address at which I lived for the better part of a decade. If a judgment was issued against me by the city, why was I not served? Why was I never contacted? I've never been a hard person to find.
So thinking that something was amiss I went down to the city court in New York where the judgment was supposedly issued. They did a formal record search (going back 10 years) and they have no record of ever issuing any kind of judgment against me. To cover my basis I went to the county court too...same deal there...no record of my name at all.
I then contacted the original court in California in which the judgment was issued back in 1999. They have no record of the judgment ever being renewed.
My credit is flawless, by the way. There is no record of any judgment ever being on my credit. I have very high credit scores with all 3 major bureaus.
So, given that the court in California has no record of a renewal ever being filed AND that the court in New York has no record of my name at all, I'm thinking that the law firm (Forster and Garbus) sent my bank fraudulent documents making it look like they had a judgment against me in New York. My bank then froze my account (and charged me a $100 fee, by the way). In doing so, Forster and Garbus knew I would call them and would be upset. I'm thinking they were hoping I would agree to settle etc. When I did not (and when I threatened to sue them) they returned my money (claiming that the reason they were doing so was that I now lived in PA rather than NY).
I'm wondering if I should sue forster and garbus. At the very least they cost me $100 when my bank assessed a legal processing fee, not to mention the many hours of homework I needed to do to educated myself on basic debt law and the general anxiety associated with this whole situation. But more to the point, and much more importantly, they need to be penalized if they have a habit of issuing fraudulent docs to banks, etc. If they did it to me it seems likely they've done it to others.
The problem is, I don't know for sure that there isn't some possibility that I've overlooked (which is the main reason I'm here). I mean, I feel like I've covered all possibilities...I've done formal record checks with the California courts where the case was originally filed and the New York courts where forster and garbus claimed to have a case against me. But I'm paranoid that there is something I've overlooked. I've read that the statute of limitations of collection judgments in CA is 10 years, and that as long as no one has renewed the judgment I should be home free. From what the CA courts told me, they have no record of that ever taking place. So I'm assuming that I'm safe. And since the New York courts have no record of my name at all, it seems pretty obvious that the doc sent to my bank must be fake.
But would forster and garbus really be that stupid? It just seems too easy. Like there must be something I've overlooked. Assuming you actually managed to read through (and understand) all of this, I'd appreciate any advice you might have. Many thanks...
A collection judgment was issued against me in California in 1999 after I defaulted on a Sears credit card. I left California that year and moved to New York State. I had no idea a judgment was issued against me.
I learned of the judgment last summer (i.e., summer 2010, about 10.5 years after the judgment was issued) when a New York law firm (Forster and Garbus) sent my bank an information subpoena and my bank removed nearly $7000 from one of my accounts. By this time I was living in Pennsylvania. I called Forster and Garbus to figure out what was going on, and they claimed they had a judgment against me for $9600 and asked me to settle for $6200 (which seemed strange to me since they already froze more than that, and was the first clue, in my opinion, that something didn't seem right). I told them I was not giving them a penny and that they would be hearing from my lawyer. An hour later they called me back and claimed that their judgment was from New York State and that since I now lived in PA that they could not enforce it. So they sent my bank a message and told them to give me my money back. I was extremely happy (for obvious reasons). I had my money back within 2-3 days.
Soon after, my bank sent me a copy of the document they received from the law firm. The doc stated that they had a judgment against me in New York State (it listed the city court from the city in which I lived, and looked official enough). However...there was something strange about the document. In particular, the date of the supposed judgment was given as "2099"...and it was listed this way in not one but two different areas. The other thing that seemed strange is that they correctly listed the address at which I lived for the better part of a decade. If a judgment was issued against me by the city, why was I not served? Why was I never contacted? I've never been a hard person to find.
So thinking that something was amiss I went down to the city court in New York where the judgment was supposedly issued. They did a formal record search (going back 10 years) and they have no record of ever issuing any kind of judgment against me. To cover my basis I went to the county court too...same deal there...no record of my name at all.
I then contacted the original court in California in which the judgment was issued back in 1999. They have no record of the judgment ever being renewed.
My credit is flawless, by the way. There is no record of any judgment ever being on my credit. I have very high credit scores with all 3 major bureaus.
So, given that the court in California has no record of a renewal ever being filed AND that the court in New York has no record of my name at all, I'm thinking that the law firm (Forster and Garbus) sent my bank fraudulent documents making it look like they had a judgment against me in New York. My bank then froze my account (and charged me a $100 fee, by the way). In doing so, Forster and Garbus knew I would call them and would be upset. I'm thinking they were hoping I would agree to settle etc. When I did not (and when I threatened to sue them) they returned my money (claiming that the reason they were doing so was that I now lived in PA rather than NY).
I'm wondering if I should sue forster and garbus. At the very least they cost me $100 when my bank assessed a legal processing fee, not to mention the many hours of homework I needed to do to educated myself on basic debt law and the general anxiety associated with this whole situation. But more to the point, and much more importantly, they need to be penalized if they have a habit of issuing fraudulent docs to banks, etc. If they did it to me it seems likely they've done it to others.
The problem is, I don't know for sure that there isn't some possibility that I've overlooked (which is the main reason I'm here). I mean, I feel like I've covered all possibilities...I've done formal record checks with the California courts where the case was originally filed and the New York courts where forster and garbus claimed to have a case against me. But I'm paranoid that there is something I've overlooked. I've read that the statute of limitations of collection judgments in CA is 10 years, and that as long as no one has renewed the judgment I should be home free. From what the CA courts told me, they have no record of that ever taking place. So I'm assuming that I'm safe. And since the New York courts have no record of my name at all, it seems pretty obvious that the doc sent to my bank must be fake.
But would forster and garbus really be that stupid? It just seems too easy. Like there must be something I've overlooked. Assuming you actually managed to read through (and understand) all of this, I'd appreciate any advice you might have. Many thanks...
