Sued By Bank of America? Here's Help.
You have about 30 days from the day you were served to file a written response, and that's usually enough time.
Miss that deadline and Bank of America can take a default judgment against you. Respond, and Bank of America still has to prove its records and the amount the legal way. Here's how, and how I can help.
A Bank of America collection lawsuit is an original-creditor case. The bank issued the card or the line of credit, and it's suing on its own account rather than selling it off. That said, Bank of America has also sold plenty of defaulted accounts to debt buyers over the years, so the first thing to check on your summons is who the plaintiff actually is. If the caption names a company you've never heard of, you're probably in debt-buyer territory, and the analysis changes.
One wrinkle worth knowing. Older Bank of America card accounts often lived under the name FIA Card Services, the successor to MBNA. If your paperwork carries that name, it's the same corporate family.
A lawsuit is not a bill
When the original creditor sues, the picture is different from a debt-buyer case. Bank of America doesn't have to prove it bought your account, because it never sold it. But a lawsuit is still not a bill. The bank has to prove its case with admissible evidence, the amount claimed has to be right, and the case has to be brought within the time the law allows (for most written credit agreements in California, four years from the breach, Code of Civil Procedure section 337). Courts decide defended cases one at a time, under rules of evidence, and that look is worth something.
There's also a practical difference. Original creditors often settle defended cases on terms that surprise people, because a contested file costs them money and their records, while usually better than a debt buyer's, still have to be proven the legal way.
One more reason a defended case is worth it here. In 2015, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency found that Bank of America had engaged in unsafe or unsound practices in its non-mortgage collection litigation, including inaccurate affidavits and other sworn documents used in collection lawsuits, and imposed a $30 million penalty with remediation ordered for roughly 73,000 accounts. (Findings per the OCC's public release.) Sworn paperwork in volume collection cases deserves scrutiny, even a bank's.
Use the thirty days
From the day you're served, you generally have thirty days to file a written response with the court. If nothing gets filed, Bank of America can ask for an automatic judgment against you (called a default judgment), and with a judgment they can levy your bank account, meaning they take the money directly, garnish your wages if you have a job, or put a lien on your house. Responding is what makes everything above matter, because a defended case is where the proof gets tested.
Two reads that will help. Here's how to calculate your deadline, which is more particular than people expect. And the top five mistakes people make when they get sued is five minutes well spent before you decide anything.
Let it be my problem
If you'd rather hand this off, the consultation is free, it takes fifteen minutes, and you speak with me directly. No intake screener, no telemarketer. Although the outcome can't be guaranteed, you can offload the process, so you know that whatever can be done is being done while you go about the other things in your life. It's sort of like the alarm clock by your bed. Once it's set, your brain stops holding the time, because that's taken care of. Let me take care of this.