I found this interesting….
Browsing online like I normally do to blog about things to help others I ran into a question asked by a consumer with an answer provided by an Attorney.
The Consumer was telling the attorney that when he asked the Collection Agency for proof of his debt (validation) they sent him photocopies of Credit Card Statements from the Original Creditor. He went on to say that the Collection Agency told him that he needed to pay up the entire amount now plus fees to avoid them submitting these to the court.
The Consumer asked the Attorney if the Photo Copied Statements were enough to prevail.
The Attorney replied with this answer:
When a collection agency/debt buyer does submit a series of monthly statements, either at trial or accompanying a summary judgment motion, those statements must be properly authenticated. The statements can not be the basis for a collector’s summary judgment motion or to make their claim in court if they are unaccompanied by any affidavit swearing to or certifying the records.
As in your case, a debt buyer can not merely file documents received from the original credit card company, even if they are retained in the collection agency’s regular course of business. The records must have been kept in the original creditor’s regular course of business, and an affidavit must authenticate that fact. So therefore, the answer is no.
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