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Time Barred Debts What Revives SOL for ?

I am trying to help my sister to get her first home loan, so I have been going through her credit report with her. I noticed there are 3 new collection accounts for balances left over from insurance payments of medical bills, upon looking closer I saw these debts were actually time-barred debts. I told her that I would contact the CA and get them the necessary paperwork to explain they were time-barred. She then told me that she was contacted about two months ago, on her job, and they told her that she had two days to pay or they would garnish her wages, they had already verified she worked for the company through that companies HR dept. Well, my sister works for a major Insurance company, and it's policy is no garnishments, she would have been fired, so my sister made a payment (actually she was stupid, and with no proof gave them permission to deduct her bank account, I know these companies scare tactics, but she does not). I have been doing research and found a website that has an interesting article. Now my question is how do I find out if my state, MS is one of those states where it revives statute???? Below is a direct quote fro website: http://articles.directorym.com/Time_Barred_Debts-a935292.html "Reviving the Statute of Limitations Reviving a statute of limitations means that the entire time period begins again. Depending on your state, this can happen if you make a partial payment on a debt or otherwise acknowledge that you owe a debt that you haven't been paying. In some states, partial payment will only "toll" the statute rather than revive it."

Public Comments

1. I used to live in MS and anytime you make a payment or even admit that the debt is yours the S.O.L. stats over again.
2. This sounds like you are dealing with a bottom feeder debt collector trying to scare your sister. Debt collectors have zero power to have wages garnished. Did your sister receive a summons to go to court? Garnishments don't come out of the clear blue sky and only a court can authorize a garnishment for a company. - Debt collectors love nothing more than to pretend to be (or represent) attorneys when this is not the case to scare people into paying them. This is a violation of federal law. If they threaten you with a lawsuit/legal action, then ask for their attorney’s full name and license number in the state bar association. Call your state bar association to confirm this info. If they refuse to give this info to you, then the legal threat is probably a bluff.
3. I agree that she should contact the court clerk, where ever she had lived in since she defaulted, and ask if anything had been filed in her name. As far as resetting the SOL, if she "verbally" agreed to make the payment, they electronically deducted the amount from her bank account and she had not sent a check signed by her or sent a written acknowledgment or promise to pay then she has not reset the collecting SOL. Mississippi Code SEC. 15-1-73. New promise to be in writing; In actions founded upon any contract, an acknowledgment or promise shall not be evidence of a new or continuing contract whereby to take any case out of the operation of the provisions of this chapter or to deprive any party of the benefit thereof, unless such acknowledgment or promise be made or contained by or in some writing signed by the party chargeable thereby....... Plus the little nugget every state should have, it is actually illegal by state law (and a violation of the FDCPA) to attempt to collect on a debt that has passed SOL in MS. Mississippi Code SEC. 15-1-3. Completion of limitation extinguishes right. The completion of the period of limitation prescribed to bar any action, shall defeat and extinguish the right as well as the remedy. However, the former legal obligation shall be a sufficient consideration to uphold a new promise based thereon.