The old saying or truth, act or be acted upon, is demonstrated in life and used daily in the debt collection or legal process.
Being summonsed is a call to act and by failing to act, a Judgment by Default is the 'being acted upon' part. The consequence of a Judgment by Default is that in most matters your name will be added to the notorious 'Black List'. The killer part is that it could happen without you knowing, without you even owing the money, without you even having done business with the Plaintiff.
Let me explain: Mr. A's account is handed over by the plaintiff for collection. The collector, not being able to contact Mr. A appoints a tracer to find Mr A. In some matters, no ID number's are available and name and surname and other odd data is used. Mr B is summoned and by not acting to the summons, because its not his debt or he cannot afford the legal cost of an attorney, Mr B finds himself blacklisted.
I have seen pensioners, being blacklisted for as little as R60.00 (sixty) rand by companies doing collections for their clients on a no recovery, no payment system. The cost of removing that listing is anywhere from R800.00 (eight hundred) and more.
The question at the end of the day, who should take responsibility for the wrongful blacklisting of persons who for many qualified reasons have being the subject of one of these unjustified listing and should we have a minimum judgment amount for black listing's.
Back to the theme of the newsletter, act or be acted upon, email us if you have any comments or questions.
"Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things ... I am tempted to think ... there are no little things " - Bruce Barton
The LegalSoft Team
Cape Town, South Africa.
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