7 mistakes when testifying in a debt collection trial

hey guys welcome to our video my name is John Watson consumer protection lawyer in the state of Alabama and what we'll cover in this video are the seven mistakes that we often see people make when they're testifying in a debt collection trial so let me set stage for you you get sued by debt buyer Midland Funding portfolio Recovery unifying Calvary whoever it is they see you and you answer that's a great thing you get a trial date and now you're actually at trial what can you do or maybe not do to increase your chances of success and and I say this not because I've read things and now I'm just sort of regurgitating back what I've read but this comes from 25 years of doing trial experience and we're talk about jury trial experience and then in the last 10 or 12 years we've had a small part of our practice be helping people who are sued by debt buyers and so while those companies usually don't go to trial with us anymore we did a lot of trials like that and then I've had a lot of people call me in and we talk about it and we say you know what the best thing is to handle this on your own and I said well what can I do at trial so I can't tell you how to win your case in other words you still have to win your case but I can tell you this if you remove these seven mistakes you really increase the chances of being successful so what are these mistakes well before we get into that let me describe the overarching or you might think of the the foundation of testifying in court and that is you tell the truth absolutely tell the truth so if here's the truth we don't exaggerate it but we don't minimize we're just right down the middle we tell the exact truth and that's the basis of all of these mistakes that I see and I'm not talking about people going in and intentionally lie but they do things which prevent the truth from coming out so here are the seven mistakes let me give them to you real quick then we'll go through them one by one so mistake number one is speculating or guessing don't do that number two is answering a question without hearing the question number three is answering a question without understanding the question number four is answering a question without taking time to think about what is the truthful answer number five is answering more than is asked so say it differently we should only answer the question that's actually asked and then the last to number six would be trying to outsmart the collection lawyer and then number seven is having the wrong courtroom appearance and I'll describe what I mean by that with appearance so let's take the first one is guessing or speculating so an Alabama where I practice and in the federal courts we have rules of evidence that talk about you should only testify based upon personal knowledge and I believe it's that way in every state and so what does that mean well it means that we can't go testifying about something that we don't know so if you're asked a question and you have no idea what the answer is and you just say yes well you're not testifying from personal knowledge so let me make this practical in the debt collection context so debt collector says did you have a credit card with you know synchrony Bank capital and Chase whoever it is we'll just call that the original creditor well if the answer is yes then you would say yes well did you use that card yes did you pay it off no so you agree that you owe our client you know Midland Funding portfolio whoever it is well see that's a different question because they're saying that their client Midland portfolio unified whoever it is that we somehow Oh them well the only way that would be possible is if that debt buyer truly purchased the debt so did they well do you have personal knowledge about whether they did or did not I'd say to you that you do not have that knowledge unless it's a very unusual okay we have handled probably a thousand debt buyer cases and I've never seen a client know that because here's a trick you've got the purchase agreement to even begin to understand whether or not they bought the debt now even if you have the purchase agreement that doesn't prove they still own it but without that purchase agreement where they literally bought the debt we're not even in the ball game so they say you agree you owe my client well if you just say yes you lose the case but the thing is you don't know that so why would you answer that way so if they ask you well now you understand we bought this debt no I don't well you understand that we now own this debt I do not okay because to say that you do that oh yes I agree you owe that you can only say that if you have personal knowledge obviously look if you're representing yourself do you answer and however you want I'm just telling this is how we get our clients ready for testifying in these types of cases and we ask them the question do you know that Midland Funding Midland credit management or portfolio recovery whoever it is that they truly bought the debt out well then don't testify differently and so we don't speculate we don't guess we don't just make things up Hey look the lawyer may say now do you really think that I would bring this lawsuit do you think this judge would let me come into this courtroom do you think I'd be standing in front of you if we did not buy the debt well now you know that we bought the debt I do not know that here's the bill of sale well if you read the bill of sale at the bottom it'll say this is part of the credit card purchase agreement or the purchase and sales agreement well it's a part of that so you need the whole document to be able to understand this so you look at this one piece of paper and go I don't know what this means well look we've got your statements okay well the statements prove that you owe us the debt now again unless you have personal knowledge that that's true you just say no I don't know so that's first mistake is guessing or speculate second mistake is answering before you hear the question now here's what I want you to think about really with all of these sort of use this metaphor I should have said this at the beginning so one disadvantage of not using any notes is sometimes things will get out of order but I want you to imagine that there's a knock on your door at 6:00 in the morning you open the door and it's the police and they say we're arresting you because you killed your neighbor last night at 3 o'clock and forget about having lawyers and all that they take it to the station they set a record around go we're going to question you because we know that you murdered your neighbor and say ask you a question so would you just sort of guess that the answers well no because they're trying to pin a murder on you well the second mistake is answering without hearing the question so what if they said to you now is it true last night that you went to bed you slept in your bed above yes or no and you go well I didn't hear the whole question but the first part sounded true so I'm gonna say yes well what if the recorder picks up they said and you slept in your own bed last night and then you get up and you murdered your neighbor you just admit it to it you can't come back away well I didn't hear the question well if you didn't hear the question don't answer it say I'm sorry I didn't hear the question could you repeat it it's the same thing in a debt collection trial you know you had a synchrony bank credit card yes and you use that card yes and you may charge us on it yes and you didn't pay it off yes and now you agree that you owe like well I guess he's saying that I was synchrony Bank well first of all mistake number one is guessing we don't guess mistake number two is you didn't hear the question so if you say yes and turns out what the lawyer really said and the judge heard this was you know that that you use that card and you didn't pay it off and you owe UniFi now well see when you lose the case it's kind of hard to come back later go but judge I didn't hear that question if you don't hear the question don't answer it say I'm sorry I didn't catch the full question can you repeat that for me well what the lawyer says no you have nothing to answer there's no question on the table that you have heard then there's nothing for you to answer so mistake number one Singh mistake number two answering a question when you haven't heard the question well number three matches with that or flows from that which is answering a question without understanding the question now what I mean is the question as a whole and then each word of the question so again let's go back to our silly illustration of you're in the police station and and they speak loud for you you definitely hear the question but they ask it to you in Spanish and you don't know Spanish or French and you don't know French well I heard the question I don't know what he's saying but you know he seems really confident and so I'm gonna go yes you may have just admitted to it now upset it's a silly example but I'm just illustrating even if you hear the question if you don't understand it do not answer the question unless you understand it so how might the the question as a whole be confusing well maybe they say now isn't it true that you spoke with Bob at synchrony Bank and then you spoke with jacket Midland Funding and then you spoke with Harry at portfolio recovery and you told him that you owed the debt well told which him you know the first guy the second guy the third guy who are you talking about here okay so you'd say I'm sorry I don't understand that question can you rephrase that I'm not sure who you're asking me about okay yeah you might just not understand the question at all say look i'm completely lost on that question can you rephrase that or can you break it down for me and if the lawyer says no well then I have no answer because I don't know what you're asking me see I raised my hand to swear or affirm tell the truth I can't do that if I don't understand the question well what if you understand the question but there are some legal words in there so they say to you now you agree that this was an open account and then the Athenee now has this account and it is an account stating what all those words mean now what is open account mean what does Asuna me what does account stated and I can tell you that somewhere between 90 and 99 percent of lawyers don't know what those mean and a debt collection context so before you go well you know I think I read on Wikipedia what an open account is and so probably that remember rule number one don't guess okay so don't guess make sure you hear the question make sure you understand the question and you say I'm sorry I don't know what you mean by open account could you explain that to me I don't know what you mean by hacen e hacen or you know I mean again who can keep all that straight less see less or you want them to explain it to you okay what does account stated me because all these words can mean different things in different context and if you just assume rule number one you guess and that's going to be a problem so again just ask that they rephrase it or explain what they mean so don't guess don't answer if you don't hear don't answer if you don't understand fourth mistake is answering a question before you think about what the truthful response is so here's what happens sometimes is let's go back to our illustration of the murder and they say is it true that you got up at two o'clock this morning and and you know that that's true and you go yes and then they finish the rest this and then you went over and killed your neighbor well maybe it's not clear the order of that maybe you know somebody transcribes that or somebody listens to it sounds like you answered yes at the end of the question so in deposition we'd see this all the time and and sometimes I'll be kind of you know just kidding around with the person I'm - posing if they're a decent person and I'll ask a question and they'll like jump in and say yes and then the rest of the question I'll say and you agree you were the second gunman and you killed JFK and I go okay I see what you're saying I'll let you finish your question and then I'll answer and I'll let them finish their answer so same thing here you don't want the lawyer to ask you a question about what you wrote synchrony bank you owed this company bla bla bla bla in in you right in and then at the end they go and then we bought the debt and we now own it because what the judge may hear is that full question than you answered yes so let the lawyer asked the quit this is not jeopardy where you got to like buzzin and you're on a timer here let the lawyer ask the question think about it for a moment it's a truthful answer and then answer truthfully let me tell you this you can answer a question and then five minutes goes by and then you go wait a minute I need to go back and change my answer you can do that but it's not the best things better than leaving the wrong answer but far better to take the question think about it for a moment and then answer truthfully so don't guess don't answer if you didn't hear don't answer if you don't understand don't answer without taking time to think about it the fifth one is don't answer a question that hasn't been asked I know that sounds silly but let me give you the illustration you know I'll change it from the the murder thing here something probably all of us have experienced in one form or another and that is you get a phone call from your spouse or whoever it is and they say hey are you about to leave work you go yeah I'm about to leave work they go can you pick up milk on the way absolutely no doubt about it I'll get it and what happens you blow past the grocery store you open the door and your spouse is standing there and she says did you get the milk well let's think about this alright so we can't guess did we hear the question yeah we heard the car do I understand the question yeah we understand let's think about what the truthful answer is the only possibilities are yes no or I don't remember now if we say I don't remember that's pretty bad well truthfully we did not get the milk so the answer would be no but how many of us are comfortable saying to our spouse when they called us and said get the milk and we go yep I'll get the milk we walk in and they say did you get the milk and we got no no that's it most of us are a little uncomfortable doing that so what we would say is no but and then we make an excuse you know why are we drinking cow's milk or you know why don't we drink water drink orange juice or you know why don't we do this or that or the store was crowded or what that's all to justify so the answer is no but is to make me look better well I won't tell you how to live your life with your spouse or whoever you live with but I will tell you this in court that's a dangerous thing to do and here's what it really comes from is we start anticipating the question because maybe the lawyer asked this question this question this question and then goes to the next month of statements or whatever it he asked this question this question that and so we go hey I recognize that pattern and so we ask a question we just go ahead and answer the rest of it or it's a question like I was talking about where we want to say but okay so did you use the credit card yes did you get goods and services yes did you pay it off you know to just say no kind of makes me look bad so I say no but I lost my job no but I went through a divorce no but I had a medical crisis we didn't ask you that yes did you pay at all and the danger is when we start doing this it's a really bad habit to get into and we may volunteer information which makes us look bad or opens up a whole new line of inquiry so give me an example this is from probably 20 years ago so I see a big insurance company and then the local insurance agents because they went to my client who's an older client and they said hey would you like life insurance yeah it's a look make three payments of $20,000 each so three yearly payments 20 grand and when you do that you're done you don't have to pay us anymore you are insured the rest your life and different ways to describe this vanishing premiums all the source stuff not important so he does that and he gets the year four and they say and you gotta pay us more money or we're terminating your policy what you know you promised me so we sue well no doubt that the local agents told him that but I'm trying to tie them to this big insurance company it wasn't like New York life where it's a New York life agent New York this was a smaller agency and you know the insurance company and so I'm trying to time together so I'm asking these series of questions to this executive from the insurance company you had cells quota no well if they didn't meet their sales quota they would get fired absolutely not you know and I go through all these lists of questions and I'm embarrassed to say it but honestly I was done with that line of inquiry I'm like I guess I'm just not gonna get what I need I'm gonna go on to something else and I'm just truthfully kind of thinking in my brain but I'm looking at this person and she assumed I was gonna ask the next question I should have asked it okay it's my mistake but she volunteered she goes but you know if they don't meet their quota they do lose their health insurance with us really you know the lawyer is like ah who's defending her and now maybe she just thought I was a nice guy and she was one to help me and it was it was great because it was a six-figure case but probably she just saw me going down this line of questioning and I stopped here and she assumed and so she just volunteers it don't do that okay even if you know what the lawyers gonna ask you next just answer the question that's asked and judges appreciate this too you know what's the old expression say you know be careful that guy you're asking what time it is he'll explain to you how a watch works it's like I just want the time just tell me the time well just answer the question now if you have a lawyer representing that lawyer we'll be able to bring out some of these circumstances that maybe justify what's happened and if you're representing yourself usually the judge will give you an opportunity to testify okay and what we call a narrative fact in other words you don't have to like ask yourself questions and answer you just say judge here's what happened but when you start arguing with the lawyer and a painting from the lawyer usually bad things happen so don't guess don't answer if you didn't hear don't answer if you don't understand don't answer without thinking about only answer the question that's asked well what are the last two the sixth one is and it relates to what we're just I'm trying to argue with the lawyer outsmart the lawyer now like this has nothing do it then tells you may be far more intelligent than the lawyer but it's an unfair battle if you want to think about that way you're in the courtroom that's the lawyers domain and the lawyer gets to ask you questions you don't get to ask the lawyer questions other than could you repeat that or can you rephrase that because I don't understand it the normally in these situations Midland Funding portfolio you know fund they're not going to have a witness there and if they do you would question the witness not the lawyer the lawyers not under oath you're under a and so don't try to outsmart the lawyer saying you know I'm gonna say this Soto tricky motor don't do that this may be your first case your second case I mean I have people sometimes call me they go John you're giving terrible advice I've handled two of these cases and so I know what's best here nothing I've handled a thousand of these cases I can't tell you the number of jury trials I've had you know I have a lot of experience in this and so even if you've had a one or two of these that collection lawyer this is all they do and they know this and the judge knows them and so don't try to get cute don't try to outsmart them don't try to embarrass the lawyer make the lawyer look that I can tell you this when I'm in a jury trial and I know most these collection cases are not your own I understand well I'm in a jury trial and the witness on the other side is being a jerk as being a smart aleck is trying to make me look bad you know for example though you know I ask a question I go what would you have done you know or they say you know why are you representing consumers here aren't you embarrassed to be representing kids now there was just where craziness and you can see they're like so proud of themselves what they don't see is I look over at the jury make sure you don't jaws clinching or you know that vein that runs that because they're frustrated as person being a jerk look let the other side be a jerk you don't be a jerk we're the good guys let them be the bad guys so don't try to embarrass a lawyer argue with the lawyer you know outsmart the lawyer it's just not gonna work okay and the final thing is your courtroom appearance what I mean by appearance what I mean is just your demeanor in there how you look when you show up so let's let's break these down so how do you dress I use tell people go to court like you go to church quite work anymore some people show up to church and a t-shirt and shorts and and look how you dress for church there's really between you and God I'm not here to tell you about that what I am here to tell you is you need to dress in respectful manner when you're in court yeah judge comes out in these black robes it's not because she's cold it's just so cold in here I gotta wear a jacket no it's a sign of office to sign of respect and it just says hey look we're in a very important place here a very important occasion and so we need to have some dignity about it so if you show up with a baseball hat and a t-shirt and shorts or you just come from the gym it's just not the right look now I'm not saying you have to wear a tuxedo you have to wear a three-piece suit I'm saying just dress nice if for you dressing nice is a suit and tie then wear a suit and tie if it's wearing khaki pants and a long shirt then do that whatever it is just dress in a respectful manner and what's interesting to me is sometimes I tell people this and they'll say oh I I think that's ridiculous I don't ever judging by the way that they're dressed really so you know I can come in and shorts and a t-shirt and show up at a funeral like that doesn't mean anything okay well what do you think when you see a person in a three-piece suit oh that person is just showing off they're trying to impress me wait am i I thought you didn't you didn't draw any conclusions from how people were dressed look we all do and so you don't want to do something that's distracting okay so if you know I practice in Alabama don't walk in and an Alabama shirt what the judge is an Auburn fan yeah judge gonna put all that aside but look here's the conscious level there's always the unconscious or the subconscious level so if you show up with some shirt on that has a vulgarity is that gonna impress the judge okay if you show up with a make America great again hat and you're in front of a Democrat maybe that's not going to be the most impressive thing you know you come in with a Bernie Sanders head and it's a conservative Republican maybe not the most impressive so just don't do things that are going to jeopardize let me say it this way have you ever sold a house before well if you've got a good real estate agent what they'll tell you is look take down things that would be controversial because you don't want somebody walking in and seeing something go I don't like this place okay and even taking down like pictures of your children you know because you don't want the person to feel like oh they're invading somebody's space or they become distracted by oh hey look we went to Disney World also you just want them to see the house well in a courtroom in your trial you don't want them to look at your clothes and notice anything that'll look at you and not think anything about it rather than go on well wonder why they're wearing that or wonder why they're dressed in this manner because that may subtly influence a judge against you there's no reason to do that same thing with being late first of all if you're late you may lose your case but it cases over but even if the judge shows you some mercy do you really want to be starting off the very first time the judge sees you you're 15 minutes late you come in at a baseball hat a t-shirt shorts you just came from the gym you like judge look I had had to do my workout this morning and I'm on a really tight timeframe so if we could really speed this thing up well the judge is going to all the judges I know they're going to do their best to put that aside but do you think that has no impact on them just think about yourself it does that impact you if somebody is and abrasive and kind of condescending to you yeah most of us it does so just don't do anything that could cause a judge of a negative reaction be respectful to everybody to the lawyer to the judge you know I've seen people that they'll call the judge by first thing don't do that I'm called judge my last name you know at a minimum say yes sir yes man but preferably say your honor okay even if you don't particularly like the person in those black robes respect the office look I've been in front of Judge all over the state and I've been in other states too but all over the state of Alabama and I've had judges that were very dignified and I've had judges that we're in these types of cases they are so mad that I'm there defending my client and they're just being really abrasive towards me and I had one that we won the case and in the judge is saying to the lawyer I hate having to rule in his favor pointing at me this just bothers me so much but he's right and I have to realize please I'm begging you appeal this case beat him you need to beat him okay that's not really appropriate but you know what I didn't start insulting the judge I'm like thank you your honor you know maybe we be excused I'm very respectful because I'm respecting the office even if the person in the office doesn't deserve that respect or maybe they're just having a bad day who knows what happened in their life be respectful okay don't be a jerk to the lawyer don't be a jerk to court personnel don't you know have your cell phone in there ringing don't be sloppy and look if you're bringing papers you want the judge like I don't bring a shoebox full of papers they judge there it is you can look through it no I'm gonna do that have whatever you need have it organized have a copy for the little lawyer have a bunch of manila folders they judge here's what I'd like you to look at you give a copy to the lawyer give a copy to the judge that's going to be impressive that doesn't change substantively whether you win or lose but here's what it does remember I said that unconscious level it creates more credibility for you so if you're not are with the lawyer if you're not trying to outsmart the lawyer and you are being respectful you're only answering the question let's ask I show up on time you look decent it just creates the impression that you're a credible person which is what you want from the judge so I hope that this is helpful to you and like there's other mistakes we can talk about but these are the big seven that we've seen for many many years so let's stay it in a positive way only answer what you truly know don't guess answer when you've heard the question if you don't hear the question ask them to repeat it answer when you understand the question if you don't understand it ask them to rephrase it take a moment to think about what's the truthful answer to this question and then answer it truthfully only answer the question that's asked don't anticipate don't say well he's probably gonna ask this or well I don't like the way that makes me sound so I'm gonna say yes but or no but just answer the question the sixth thing is don't try to outsmart or embarrass a lawyer argue with the lawyer just be a credible witness because that's what you are they're talked about when you're testifying and then the final thing is how the right appearance dress respectfully be respectful to the court be respectful to the lawyer show up on time be organized and just make this as easy as possible for the judge so that there's no difficulty with the judge and in looking at you and looking at your evidence that you're presenting so there should be a link below in the description that'll take you to a page where a lot of this is typed out and if you have questions and you live in Alabama the best way just give us a call two oh five eight seven nine two four four seven or you can go to Alabama consumer comm and fill out a contact form there if you're in another state I always recommend get what the lawyer in your state you know if you have sort of a general question you want to put that in the comments below I'll do my best to answer those but again the way things are done in Alabama may be different than Georgia Mississippi or Nevada or California or Texas you really need a lawyer in your state but maybe this gives you some ideas of kind of a starting point so thanks for watching this video and I'll catch you guys later bye-bye

Channel: Alabama Consumer Protection Lawyers

Views: 59,878

Keywords: john watts, stan herring, birmingham, alabama, lawyer, madison, attorney, watts & herring, debt buyer, debt collection lawsuit, testifying

Id: xF2ZuR2-O4o

Length: 31min 13sec (1873 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 18 2019