[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Fighting Banana Slug

CHL, I think you are underestimating a couple of factors. Firstly, the fear of the uninitiated in the legal system. I think there are many people who are not educated on our system, are terrified of the prospect of showing up to court and are concerned about the cost of lawyers. In particular, if the debt had been cleared, the respondent might think, "well this is bogus, I don't need to waste my time".

Maybe it's uncharitable of me to consider such people stupid. But what do you think is going to happen if you get sued? The lawsuit specifically says, on the form, what you have to do, and just general common sense would say that if you don't know how this whole thing works, you could google it. Fear, through ignorance of how the legal system works, doesn't absolve you for burying your head in the sand and hoping the whole thing goes away. Why would that be excusable?

The piece specifically mentioned bad book keeping. If all there is one line on a spreadsheet, you don't think there might be errors? I don't think you can dismiss the idea of someone ignoring a lawsuit as someone who is simply a moron.

Sure, I think there might be errors. If I get served with a lawsuit tomorrow for defaulting on a $100,000 line of credit issued by RBC (hypothetically), I'll know it's a mistake. I didn't borrow that money. Common sense would say the first thing I'd do is probably try to call the lawyer, and point that out, and ask why they think I owe that money. Then I'd take the required steps to deal with the lawsuit, including, if it didn't go away, going to court and saying to the judge, "I never borrowed that money, and they can't prove that I did, because I didn't". And that would be it. I wouldn't need a law degree for that.

In other words, the fact that there might be errors - and I don't dispute there might be - doesn't excuse you for throwing a lawsuit in the garbage. Again, I ask, what do you think is going to happen here? If you're being pulled over by the cops, and you know with 100% certainty you haven't done anything wrong and they must have made a mistake, do you just keep driving? What do you think is going to be the result of that?

I also disagree with your assertion that it is the debtor that is gaming the system if he or she fights a lawsuit in which he or she owes money. Again, it said right in the piece that there could be very legitimate reasons why the lawsuit should be tossed: Could be beyond the statute of limitations, perhaps the debt was extinguished through bankruptcy. That is the law, it isn't gaming the system, I am surprised you would use that terminology.

If it's expunged through bankruptcy, you no longer owe the money. The debt effectively ceases to exist. Generally, in a bankruptcy, the creditor accepts some lesser amount in satisfaction of the debt (which may even be $0), but the debt is still considered satisfied. That's not gaming the system. There are tradeoffs to declaring bankruptcy, which is why everyone doesn't just do it to get rid of all their debt. If you do it, you pay a price. That's a perfect example of one of those errors we were just talking about.

If it's past the statute of limitations, yeah, you did, basically, take advantage of the system. You still owe the money to the creditor, but they have no way to force you to pay it. It's the creditor's fault for not pursuing you in time, but you got a windfall; you took out a loan and never paid it back. You got free money. You're not the one who's getting the shaft, in that situation.