Help with Information Subpoena and Written Questions

TourPreferred0430 · June 27, 2012

GolfWRX attorneys,

I am facing a legal issue and am in need of your help.

About a week ago, I received a strange call from individual who stated she was from a law firm and requested me to confirm my personal information in regard to a case. I refused to confirm my personal information and asked what case was being brought against me. She then transferred me over to paralegal who again asked me to confirm my personal information. I refused to provide my SS and other details, and asked them to send me documentation to my home address if they needed to contact me.

Fast forward to this week, and I received two letters in the mail (both the same, but one was sent certified priority). The letter states the following:

Information Subpoena and Written Questions

Midland Funding LLC vs. John Doe

Civil action: Information Subpoena

The State of New Jersey, to: John Doe

JUDGEMENT has been entered against you in teh Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, MERCER Special Civil Part, on "DATE" in the amount of "$xxxx.xx" plus costs, of which "$xxxx.xx" together with interest from "DATE" remains due and unpaid.

Attached to this Information Subpoena is a list of questions that court rules require you to answer within 14 days from the date you receive this subpoena. If you do not answer the attached questions within the time required, the opposing party may ask the court to conduct a hearing in order to determine if you should be held in contempt. You will be compelled to appear at the hearing and explain your reasons for your failure to answer.

If this judgement has resulted from a default, you may have the right to have this default judgement vacated by making an appropriate motion to the court. Contact an attorney or the clerk of the court for information on making such a motion. Even if you dispute the judgement, you must answer all of the attached questions.

The information subpoena document that was attached to this letter asks for all my personal information including SS, wage, loans, property, etc.

I was shocked to receive this letter as I have no idea what this debt is about and they have not included any of that information. The return address for the information subpoena is to the law firm Pressler and Pressler. I am not sure if I should fill out this information subpoena and am cautious since I feel that such information should be provided to the court and not the junk debt collecting law firm (I am sure they will use this information to exploit money and cause a headache).

To find out more about this, I called the Superior Court of New Jersey and was provided with details. The individual who took the call told me documents were served on me on March 2010 and is with regard to a Citibank Credit Card. He provided me the account number and it does not match with any card that I have had in the past. Additionally, I was provided with the address that the documents were served to (address that was provided when the card was made in 2005, according to the court official). I have never been at the address and it is not even a town in which I have lived before.

I believe this junk debt collection agency and the law firm Pressler are contacting the wrong individual and it's a case of mistaken identity. I would like to get this resolved so I can get rid of this headache and it does not taint my credit.

What is the appropriate course of action at this point? Do I fill out the information subpoena and send it back? Do I contact the law firm Pressler to tell them it's a case of mistaken identity (I'm afraid to do this because I have researched the firm and they seem like a scam...I wouldn't be surprised if I provided my SSN and they simply changed the SSN on the documents to mine and screwed me over).

Sorry for the long-winded post, but I really appreciate the help. Thank you!

ralvar · June 28, 2012

[quote name='TourPreferred0430' timestamp='1340828423' post='5179384']
GolfWRX attorneys,

I am facing a legal issue and am in need of your help.

About a week ago, I received a strange call from individual who stated she was from a law firm and requested me to confirm my personal information in regard to a case. I refused to confirm my personal information and asked what case was being brought against me. She then transferred me over to paralegal who again asked me to confirm my personal information. I refused to provide my SS and other details, and asked them to send me documentation to my home address if they needed to contact me.

Fast forward to this week, and I received two letters in the mail (both the same, but one was sent certified priority). The letter states the following:

[i][u]Information Subpoena and Written Questions[/u]

Midland Funding LLC vs. John Doe
Civil action: Information Subpoena

The State of New Jersey, to: John Doe
JUDGEMENT has been entered against you in teh Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, MERCER Special Civil Part, on "DATE" in the amount of "$xxxx.xx" plus costs, of which "$xxxx.xx" together with interest from "DATE" remains due and unpaid.

Attached to this Information Subpoena is a list of questions that court rules require you to answer within 14 days from the date you receive this subpoena. If you do not answer the attached questions within the time required, the opposing party may ask the court to conduct a hearing in order to determine if you should be held in contempt. You will be compelled to appear at the hearing and explain your reasons for your failure to answer.

If this judgement has resulted from a default, you may have the right to have this default judgement vacated by making an appropriate motion to the court. Contact an attorney or the clerk of the court for information on making such a motion. Even if you dispute the judgement, you must answer all of the attached questions.[/i]

The information subpoena document that was attached to this letter asks for all my personal information including SS, wage, loans, property, etc.

I was shocked to receive this letter as I have no idea what this debt is about and they have not included any of that information. The return address for the information subpoena is to the law firm Pressler and Pressler. I am not sure if I should fill out this information subpoena and am cautious since I feel that such information should be provided to the court and not the junk debt collecting law firm (I am sure they will use this information to exploit money and cause a headache).

To find out more about this, I called the Superior Court of New Jersey and was provided with details. The individual who took the call told me documents were served on me on March 2010 and is with regard to a Citibank Credit Card. He provided me the account number and it does not match with any card that I have had in the past. Additionally, I was provided with the address that the documents were served to (address that was provided when the card was made in 2005, according to the court official). I have never been at the address and it is not even a town in which I have lived before.

I believe this junk debt collection agency and the law firm Pressler are contacting the wrong individual and it's a case of mistaken identity. I would like to get this resolved so I can get rid of this headache and it does not taint my credit.

What is the appropriate course of action at this point? Do I fill out the information subpoena and send it back? Do I contact the law firm Pressler to tell them it's a case of mistaken identity (I'm afraid to do this because I have researched the firm and they seem like a scam...I wouldn't be surprised if I provided my SSN and they simply changed the SSN on the documents to mine and screwed me over).

Sorry for the long-winded post, but I really appreciate the help. Thank you!
[/quote]

I'm not an attorney but have had similar problems. I have a very common name and a collection agency was coming after me for a cell phone bill that wasn't mine. Like you, I was living at another address than the one on the bill. If you can dig up a utility bill from 2005 (when the account was created) or 2010 (when the other guy was served) you should be able to demonstrate you are not the guy. I agree you should not return the questionnaire, but if you send them some documentation they have the wrong guy, they should relent. Otherwise, you may have to make the trip to court where it should be pretty easy to demonstrate they have the wrong guy.

Here's a website with some helpful info.

[url="http://www.expertlaw.com/library/consumer/fair_debt_collection.html"]http://www.expertlaw.com/library/consumer/fair_debt_collection.html[/url]

hebron1427 · July 9, 2012

I don't practice in credit or finance. However, if you have a debt, they are REQUIRED to send you a written notification of the debt and give you an opportunity to dispute before taking any steps. I would pull a credit report to make sure there's nothing reported about it. If this is truly not your debt, you should not be required to answer for it. You may need to retain an attorney to get your information unassociated from whatever suit this is. Check out Clark Howard's website and even give him a call if possible. I know he talks about this kind of stuff all the time on his radio show.