"Dear sir/mme" has nothing to do with a draft statement of claim. It sounds like what you have is a collection notice on a lawyer’s letterhead. Again, it's probably just a reminder you owe money but from your collection agencies friendly neighbourhood lawyer.

The draft statement of claim trick is a plaintiff's claim filled out with full details but, and its a big BUT.. not actually registered with the court. You will know if it's a real claim by looking to see if a court clerk actually signed it or not.

FYI make sure any deal you make to repay the balance is first sent to you in writing - verbal deals with bill collectors never ever seem to stick.

Thank you once again Richard. Just to be clear...draft form would be addressed as "dear sir/mme" correct?

After reading your article it is not even a draft form a court document. It is simply a letter from a lawyer stating that they have been retained to conduct an investigation for the "justifiction" to initiate legal action. It then states that they may file a lawsuit against us if the investigation supports it.

I willlet my wife know to just continue to deal with the collection agency with making payment arrangements.

It's very common for collection agencies to use a lawyers letter to try to collect debts.

Some of the larger collection agencies send out millions of collection notices monthly so its very cost effective for them to use a lawyer's letter because it really scares people.

Unless it's a real statement of claim from a lawyer (NOT in draft form) it's just another peice of paper reminding you that a debt is owed.

You can read up on an article I wrote on our website on the draft statement of claim trick if you like here: http://www.totaldebtfreedom.ca/articles/article_17.htm

Thanks Richard...that's what I figured but thought I would put it out there anyway.

Of course now while my wife plays phone tage with them we recieved a letter dated March 11 from the Law Offices of David Ball asking for money for the same debt. How the hell can they have two different companies, one a collection agency,the other a law firm collecting the same debt?

This is not a ligit settlement offer:

"Pay 10% of the balance or 300 monthly."

You will still owe the full balance. He is talking about paying $300/m or 10% of the balance monthly as in a payment plan.

Be careful - reading too far into things has gotten people burned on settlements.

Hi all. I am hoping that someone can help with the following.

My wife just recieved a call from contact resources and was trying to work out payments for an overdue credit card debt. She recieved an email from the "legal supervisor" stating she could settle for the amount of $2800 or by paying the full amount of approx $3300 in monthly installments of $662.

She responded looking for a more reasonable settlement..see email below.

From: Tania

Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 2:57 PM
To: Frank Drosi
Subject: Re: Canadian Tire [Scanned]

Hello Frank,

Thank you for the letter. I have a few comments and questions.

I explained to Carla what our circumstances for not paying were and that my husband has been laid off. I would like to have a more reasonable payment option than this that will match with our current income. I do not have a problem paying what we owe, but it needs to be a reasonable scenario. We would like to work out payment arrangements, and once my husband is working we are completely willing to revisit this and potentially pay more to get this issue fully resolved, I find these current offers unreasonable. For example option #2 is more than 25% of my monthly income at this point.
Can you please get back to me with further, more realistic options?

Regards,

This is how he responded...

Frank Drosi to me

show details 1:33 PM (6 hours ago) Reply

Pay 10% of the balance or 300 monthly,

So by this statement it can be read that we can settle for 10% of the full amount.I realize this may not be the case but in these cases should we ask for clarification or pay the 10% of the full debt as per our interpretation of his instructions.

Any help would be appreciated.