how do you get a debt collector's attorney to send receipt of payment on settled debt if he won't return calls

Question

We negotiated out of court (a summons was sent to me) and he says he would dismiss the lawsuit and send recipt of payment signed and stating debt has been satisfied in full, but I'm worried he won't hold his end of the bargain. The check, made over the phone, cleared.

Answer 1

A few very important questions

Did you file an answer to the summons?
When you settled, did both you and the lawyer sign an agreement and did you receive a copy of the "signed" agreement?
Did you take a copy of the signed agreement to the court clerk and request that it be placed in your case file?

If you did receive a signed copy but did not file it with the court clerk, I would strongly suggest that you take a copy of the signed agreement to the court clerk and have the clerk place it in your file - ASAP.
And after it is entered, request the court clerk give you a full and complete copy of the file.

The lawyer may possibly be a stand up person and honor your agreement - but if it were me I would cover all the bases just in case. (I've just seen many people end up on the short end by trusting the lawyer)

Two other things I would recommend.

Since they now have your checking account info, pull every penny out of that bank account and close it.

Go to the lawyers office and request that they give you a receipt right then and there. If they say that they already put it in the mail, tell them to make another copy and give it to you.

If they give you a copy immediately, the lawyer may probably be on the up and up. If they try to stall, then my gut would say that somethings up.

They would have no reason to stall since your file would be right there and the receipt would be in it. It would take them all of one minute to make a copy and hand it to you.

If they do hand you a copy of the receipt, you might take a copy of it to the court clerk and request it be placed in your file.

Again, the lawyer may honor the agreement. Just do as much as you can to make sure it is honored.

Answer 2

send your request certified mail