Forster, Garbus & Garbus Forster & Garbus Lawyers Debt Collectors Zombie Debts Hackensack New Jersey

Two days ago the comptroller at my wife’s work received a court order for wage garnishment from a default judgment to a lawsuit from Forster, Garbus & Garbus.  There are multiple problems with this.  First we were unaware that we were even being sued.  We have never been served with any summons or complaint.  Second, not only do we have no clue who these people (FG&G) are, we don’t even know the company they are supposedly representing! 

My wife immediately contacted FG&G to find out who they were and when we were allegedly served with a court summons.  They could not provide an exact date and even acknowledged they received no response from us.  After pushing for written verification of acknowledgement of debt and a copy of a signed, delivered summons they then stated they served it towards the end of last year but again, had no proof.  Upon further requests, they stated they sent it via first class mail, TO AN ADDRESS WE HAVE NOT LIVED AT SINCE 2008!  When my wife informed them that we never received any notice they told us to “take it up with the people who live there now because they never sent it back to sender.”  I’m sorry, what?  So you’re essentially saying you can sue anyone you want AND WIN by sending to a false address and claiming you never received a response, thus assuming the defendant was served? 

So then came the second part of the issue, who the hell were they even representing?  The company they stated was a company we never heard of.  Again, after requesting more information we came to find out that this was for a credit card we defaulted on in 2003.  Not saying it’s right that we defaulted, but this was an 11 year old debt that had long since been written off as a bad debt and had since even fallen off our credit report it was that old!  So the company they “represented” was the company who purchased this zombie debt.  And to make matters worse, the default was $423.  This judgment was for $1278.48.  After all the court fees, sheriff fees and attorney fees, it was for $1663.92!  How is this even possible?  We were not even afforded the opportunity to defend ourselves versus these people.  And now that a judgment has been made, we have zero recourse.  Not because we failed to appear, but because they knowingly requested a default judgment on a non-served summons!

After doing some research online I found all these complaints about FG&G and their shady collection practices.  So at this point, we’re out $1600+ but you d**n well better bet everyone who I can tell will know of these crooks!