Consumer complaint received 2023-06-11
Company: Collection at Law, Inc. A.P.C.
State: CA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt was result of identity theft

Complaint:
In 2019 COLLECTION AT LAW A.P.C. in XXXX XXXX CA sued me on behalf of XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, now keep in mind, I have never served one single shred of documentation ; not from the bank, not from the lawyer, and later on in the process not even given the employee instructions '' by my employer ( headquartered in another state, MN, 3000 miles away ) within the 10 days from receipt of the order to begin garnishing my paychecks, as the papers instruct the employer to do in BOLD italicized form, as to make sure not to disregard this part of the order, so an employee can take immediate action to defend against the levy. Upon realizing my paychecks were noticeably lower, I reached out to HR asking questions about the newly added garnishment deduction on my paycheck. My employer, ignoring my numerous requests to provide some sort of explanation on what was going on, continuously ignored my pleas, being 3k miles away, I couldnt just walk in and ask ( I work remotely ) so I went to the head of accounting and finally, after more emails asking this person for answers he oddly, provided me with an email with the employer instructions '' NOT even MY instructions ; although by this time wages are already being levied it would have been nice to have had the forms I should have been given by my employer before garnishments began to know what one does in this situation if one were given the paperwork they were to be given and the very least just to know what options I did have and go from there. But without my documents on how to proceed in fighting a lawsuit, you never knew existed because the account/credit card and debt were all due to theft, therefore I understandably had no idea whatsoever about any charges against me until 25 % of my paychecks were being garnished and unlawfully being paid towards a debt I never knew existed nor was told the debt was going to the courts, NOTHING! Regardless with funds already being taken and it now too late to defend my wages, I at least did get the case number from my employer sending me their own instructions to illegally take my money ; so I did research and found that first I should file an exemption which was what I was to do if I had been served by employer properly, so I did, and then the lawyers in the case opposed my exemption saying I was lying in a roundabout way and because my expenses were higher than my income I was certainly not exempt because I must have income from elsewhere that I wasnt filing in my exemption forms. They ( the lawyers ) claimed I must be lying because I have no debt. First of all, I do have debt, I owe family and friends and secondly, my monthly expenses exceed my income because they are taking the income that I would normally use towards my monthly bills. I spend nothing on entertainment etc and to have some law firm who knows absolutely nothing about me make these claims is ridiculous. Not only that to say my monthly expenses exceed my income IS THE DEFINITION OF EXEMPT!!!! Now being that they opposed my exemption claim and lied again under oath, I have to go to the hearing and explain this to a judge. Thats fine but first I want them to prove the debt is mine, where is the contract I am being sued upon? What rights do they have to take action against me? Where are all the documents showing my signature and the proof the debt belongs to me? If I were notified properly at any point in time in the case these are things I would ask because it is my right to ask, and it is also my right, as a victim of identity theft, to ask for the same information as to how, who, where, when, and by whom the credit was issued to and where the debt took place and how it is proven to be mine. I want these things because I was never given any of these documents and I know this is all on account of thievery and fraud. The bank had no right to appeal a credit card to someone under false pretenses and when the thieves ditch out on the debt the bank takes matters into their own and lies to the court and claims they have proven the debt is mine and served me papers etc when nothing of the sort happened! Prove all of this to ME! Not the court, I want the case against me proven to me, the one who is under investigation and charged by default because I knew nothing about any of this! Of course, you win on default because I wasnt served, prove the judgment against me and prove the debt is mine and prove the authority lies with this law firm to sue me and prove I am in breach of contract by showing me the contract not an affidavit by someone 4k miles away claiming he remembered me and the contract! Prove it all or drop the case immediately!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation