“Could you please shed some advice? My brother who is not in the country is being sued for some credit card debt which was written off more than 4 years ago (It got bought by the collection company) He cannot attend the court since he has no valid visa to enter the country. What are his options? Can I represent him in court? Is there any thing else I can do? I am afraid what will happen since he cannot be in the court on the given date.”

Generally speaking, a court might allow you to appear on behalf of your brother. It would help if you had a notarized letter from him giving you Power of Attorney to act on his behalf in this matter. The court doesn’t have to recognize you, but given the circumstances, the judge may be willing to allow you to speak on his behalf and represent his side of the story. But you really should consider hiring an attorney to assist you in this matter, because an attorney can argue a variety of legal theories that may undermine their ability to seek collection of such an old debt, especially if it had indeed been charged off.

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