Quote:
Originally Posted by boneprone
Im concerned about this Default shit everyone talks about.
Im not going to ignore it now.
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My first suggestion is to slow down. I know there is a lot of emotion over this but it won't help your situation. I have been sued and gone to court multiple times (please don't ask) and it's not as intimidating as it might seem. There is a lot of good advice people have already posted.
For the sum they are demanding from you, based on the breach of contract (not canceling within the specified amount of time), it is accurate that chances are this will wind up in small claims court. That is why you see the high level of harassment from debt collectors. Jupiter doesn't pay a fee unless they get some kind of payment from you, hence the aggressive nature. Since it would be small claims court, they can not hire a lawyer to represent them, but agents of the company must be present (there are exclusions to this).
My suggestion is to step back and take this from the beginning and document every communication between Jupiter and yourself. If any debt collector contacts you inform them that you will only communicate with Jupiter and if you receive any future communication from any debt collection agency, you will file harassment charges.
Contact Jupiter either through their lawyer, if they have one, or directly and request a copy of the contract signed by you. If they can not produce the contract they will have a hard time proving your debt in court. It is the responsibility of the plaintiff to prove their case. Hopefully in the transition the contract was lost. If they are able to provide the contract you have a tougher uphill battle. Although certain portions of a contract can be found void in court, a lot of contracts have provisions that state if any portion of the contract is void not all parts of the contract are void as well. This pertains to section c) you posted.
Before any liens on your property can be placed a judgment must be filed by the courts in your jurisdiction. Default judgments do not exist unless you have been served by a officer of the court and you have failed to appear at the designated time. If they do serve you and have to go to court they must prove their case and then you will be given the opportunity to testify. Most courts now, to ease case back logs, will ask you to either discuss the matter prior to the judge hearing the case, to see if you can settle this on your own, or have a court appointed mediator to facilitate a resolution.
But of course you would like to avoid going to court at all which means either settling for a smaller dollar amount or going to mediation.
Now this is a simple description of the process and there are situations that deviate from what I have described. The best advice is to take what documents you have and take it to a contract lawyer. This is not something that should cost a lot. But what you do end up paying will probably be the best advice you can get. It's all about the letter of the law and what can be proved.
I hope this helps and I have probably left out some details but if you have any more questions just hit me up on ICQ 493 763 025.