California: answering Muni Court creditor suit for charged off credit card

I was slightly perturbed when I replied to Christine's original thread and I left out a few details. The law firm (who's using a paralegal for all of this to save fees to the creditor) agreed to give me more time to answer, they even offered to file a plaintiff motion for allowing more time for defendant to answer. At the same time I asked for the post-repossession letter to be sent to me and it's being sent to me as we speak (supposedly). After speaking with this paralegal several more times, I decided I wanted to attempt to salvage this account and even though I disagree 100% with these people and I feel I owe them nothing, I felt that paying ~4k might be worth it if I can get them to remove all derogatory info off my credit reports (regarding this account) and turn this whole fiasco into a positive on my credit score rather than filing for bankruptcy. The law firm said they'd propose my offer for payments in return for this creditor doing as I said with my credit, they also agreed to withdraw their suit against me if we could settle everything like this (turns out they haven't even notified the court that I've been served and it was over two months ago that I was served). About a week later, after making this offer to the law firm I get a letter in the mail with their offer of settlement for me to sign, send back to them and they would file this with the court. But in this "settlement" there were no concessions by them on any part, it basically just stated that I had to pay them x amount per month in return for them dropping the suit. There were even multiple mis-spellings and they quoted two different interest rates that they were going to charge me (in the original summons I was served with, there were multiple mis-spellings and various other mistakes of fact. So today, I called and spoke with the paralegal and basically told her that if they weren't going to agree to bring the alleged principal down and agree to delete derog's off my report I was going to just file BK and I'd have to pay them nothing. I have NO motivation to pay them whatsoever, my credit is ruined from this (and other accounts) and by filing I could have better credit in a year or two than I could possibly ever have by having these a-holes report "paid charge-off" and "voluntary repo" for years to come. She actually told me that this creditor stated that they couldn't change anything on my credit report, that it was up to the credit bureaus to change anything. How ridiculous is that lame a** response???? I of course "informed" her that these a-holes can report whatever the hell they want to and that the CRA's only report what's told to them. My plan here is to get these a-holes to agree to making the changes on my credit report in return for timely payments on my part, and then I"m going to immediately turn around and sue them for the 3 violations, which I feel are pretty solid and I have evidence on their own letterhead for all 3, and I intend to pay them with their own damn money that they're going to have to pay me for violating the FDCPA (they used a collection agency who I'll be suing the original creditor for)! So, if I"m successful (which it's only ~20-30% probability that I will be) I'll have my credit restored w/out filing BK and will have their account paid off with their own money. Of course, this is improbable but you never know.

The 3 violations are as follows:

I sent a validation letter to the collection agency upon receiving their collection letter, I sent it certified w/ return receipt. After they signed for this, they fired off a letter the same day stating that the original creditor has all the validation info and that they were going to sue me immediately. They stated they're hiring an attorney in California to do it.

1) They're required to validate the account upon request by the alleged debtor, they didn't do it.
2) They continued to attempt to collect the debt w/out validating by hiring an attorney (this is continuing to attempt to collect w/out first providing validation).

Several days later I received a letter stating that "as you may know a suit has been filed against you in VA, this suit will be dismissed and a new one will be filed in CA". I spoke with the law firm in VA that they claimed filed the suit for them and was told that a suit was never filed in VA against me. They'll sign an affidavit stating this.

3) They misrepresented the legal status of my alleged debt.

All three of these may seem minor but they're all spelled out clearly in the FDCPA as violations, each one is punishable by $1000 payable to the victim. I plan on suing in small claims for 3000 and all actual damages (postage, court fees, etc..)

One more point, upon being served I immediately did alot of research on the internet and in the library, the court in this county (and most likely every county) has a law library that anyone can access. I feel that I"m very intelligent, I have a BS degree in a complicated science and I still had a hard time finding real info. The court clerks will tell you literally nothing about what to file, how to file, etc and even though I'm not making 6$/hr, I have no savings and such a small buffer between what I make and what I owe that I can't afford to hire an attorney or even pay for a paralegal to assist w/ the forms. I originally intended to file an answer disputing their claim and countersue for the violations but they filed in a municipal court vs. a small claims court, meaning the stakes are higher than a small claims case. They sued me for >5K just to get it in muni court I believe so I'd have to pay exorbitant form filing fees. After learning that the answer would be almost 200$ and then countersuing would be almost 100$ and every form you attach cost more money (to attach evidence), it was counter-productive for me to do. I decided to try to settle with these clowns or just file BK and they can F* off and get nothing. So that's where I'm at...I'll take any advice I can get here. Thanks for everything so far, it's extremely helpful to know that there are other people out there in similar situations...

I split the thread so we'll talk about YOUR California situation only.

Unfortunately, I am REALLY busy right now, and of course I'm still waiting for the Nolo book too.

I really don't think you want to file in small claims, you'll NEVER get the 3K, maybe $300. See Jordanmorganusa's results: http://bayhouse.com/credit-forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=887

And, I have to say with all the Pro Se cases I've seen, the Genesis PUBLICATION got better results than any suit - i.e. a good sized check - and NO filing fees. One exception is Whyspers and some other people who sued in FEDERAL court.

You do have some good violations, but I think you either need to file a counter suit, or prepare your answer and the counter suit and send it to the attorneys, trying to get a settlement.

What IS your deadline now? Oh, and please hit that "enter" key occasionally in your postings like you did in the 2nd one, or few people will read it.

OK, it's been almost two months since my last contact w/ the representing attorney's office paralegal. I basically told them that if they weren't going to delete negative entries on my credit reports after me making 6 months worth of payments to them that I would file for bankruptcy and they'd get nothing. I've never felt that I truly have an obligation to pay 5000$ to them for their own ineptitude. True, I did sign a contract for the vehicle loan, but I was lied to about doing a voluntary repo with them. I made payments on this vehicle for 59 months w/ only one being late, they can go to he** as far as I'm concerned.
As of today I haven't been contacted by them at all and I've heard nothing from the courts regarding this. I was told by the attorney's office that they hadn't even filed the notice of me being served w/ a subpoena with the court yet, and that was over 2 months ago. I'm not sure what to do at this point. I don't want to file BK but I will if they're not going to work with me. I'm also not even sure if I should contact them at risk of starting more problems for myself. This will be off my credit totally in 2005 and I'm thinking of just letting it sit there w/ no disputes or anything until then.
What are your thoughts????

If you have been making payments the date of last activity may have been moved up meaning 2010 instead of 2005 to age it off your reports.

actually, that's incorrect. If you make payments after 180 days of no payments, it does not extend the time of last activity on your credit report. If that were the case you could have that piece of negative information on your credit report indefinitely.

I would just let it sit until they move - just make sure that they don't get a default judgment.

Only after you bring the account CURRENT can it be legally reaged. However, that applies only to FUTURE lates. The repo can never be legally re-aged, no matter what.