My Day in Court

On April 17th, I was blessed with the experience of visiting small claims court. I don't say that sarcastically but rather in a serious manner because I believe there was a reason for it, aside from the obvious one. You cannot speak to something you've never experienced and you cannot empathize unless you've been there. I don't wish what I've gone through on anyone but I believe I will come out a better person for this.

So, allow me to back up just a bit. Roughly a week prior to my court date, I started googling various terms: 'small claims court', 'mediation' and the like. I wanted to know what would happen. What I got was all about the plaintiff and what a plaintiff can do, get, demand or expect. The only thing I found regarding defendants was blame, shame and 'well, you shouldn't have gotten yourself into that situation to begin with, you idiot!' and other condescending statements. Oddly, not terribly helpful. I vowed at that moment that whatever I learned and experienced I would write about it so that I could be helpful.

First of all, I will say that, yes, there are people who deliberately use and abuse credit and those people have lessons to learn, punishments to deal with and changes to make. That's not a judgement call that's just how it is.

Secondly, I will also tell you that there are plenty of people, myself included, who got credit cards, loans, revolving accounts and the like when they were holding down decent to great jobs and life was good. I was working for a builder in another state, making north of $40,000 and life was good. I went, not 7 months later, to a lay off. I got another job, making less than $40,000, 2 months later, in real estate.

Fast-forward to March, 2008. I was laid off because I was making more than my bosses, the owners of the company which employed me. I've not worked full-time since. I couldn't get unemployment due to small business regulations in the state I lived in. To save a lot of time, drama and info sharing that I don't wish to bore you with, I did everything I knew to do to pay the minimums on my bills, including moving in with my parents and so forth.

Every time I tried to deal with this particular credit card company they rebuffed me with 'that's not enough money'. Fine. Sue me. So they did. Well, actually, they sold my account to collection agency/law firm. They called and harassed me, suggested I prostitute myself and so forth. Apparently being cruel, inhumane, rude and obnoxious is supposed to milk blood from a turnip. Then they moved on to 'well, if you don't pay us, you'll get summoned to court then you'll have to pay what you owe PLUS court costs.' And this is going to get your your money how??

So,fast-forward to the court date. I go in to the court room and take a seat, because you have to. You may not stand while you wait. It's Small Claims Court. My judge was very efficient. He explained what was going to happen and started calling cases such as Orchard Bank vs. Marie Smith. It goes something like this:

Judge: Orchard Bank vs. Marie Smith
(Orchard Bank appears telephonically [by phone] if need be.

Marie Smith walks up to the podium.

J: Good morning, Ms. Smith, how are you?

M: Fine, your honor, how are you?

J: Good thank you. Ms. Smith, Orchard Bank alleges you owe them a debt in the amount of $2,825.68. Do you dispute this?

M: No, sir.

J: Would you like to try and work out a payment plan with them?

M: Yes, your honor.

J: OK, one of our mediation specialists will be with you shortly.
Good luck to you.

At this point, you get to sit back down and wait for the mediator to get to you. Mine was roughly a 29 minute wait. Then the mediator comes and gets you and you go into a little room. NOBODY CAN GO IN THE ROOM WITH YOU...

It's you and the mediator and the mediator calls the collection agency.

Then you wait on hold with them...my mediator said some are better than others.

Then you speak directly with the collection agency unless you're face to face then of course the mediator's talking to both of you, the ultimate goal being to reach a settlement satisfactory.

I came to a resolution mainly because I wanted it over with. Here's a note that, in the midst of it all, I completely forgot: Debt collection agencies BUY THE DEBT from Citibank or Chase or whoever so if they say 'I have to confer with our client' that's crap. Call them on it!!! Really.

The bottom line here is, if you don't have the money, don't promise them crap. If you don't have it, you don't have it. It's going to affect your credit either way.

I hope this helps someone, somehow. If I shared it for nothing, I've put out there.