Nys. College Hired A Lawyer To Collect A Debt, Then Sold It After I Agreed To A Payment Plan.

I am just out of college and never experienced being sued before and am quite overwhelmed. I tried my best to research my rights and how to proceed.

I was served about a year ago for tuition for a college course taken remotely during the pandemic (I was briefly displaced from my permanent address with my ex, and was living with family elsewhere due to being laid off. the college never tried to contact me, or put this through collections). The day I went back to pick up old mail was the day I happened to be served.

I answered the court then signed an agreement including a payment plan and have been paying according to that with the reference file number. I asked for debt verification. All communications were being done through the schools lawyer/office. The college has since permanently closed and sold the debt to a debt collection agency.

Since the college sold the debt to a new collector, Im not sure what to do. I’ve been making payments to the lawyers office as agreed, with no issues. The lawyers office just sent me a notice with the new debt collection agency attached to the file number the college used. The creditors name was changed to the new debt collection company but the same lawyers office is contacting me. Is this legal? If I was sued for a debt by the school which is attached to a specific file number, how can the lawyer use the same file number, change the creditor in their correspondence to me saying Im overdue in making a payment when i’ve been paying as previously agreed? Should the previous case not have been dismissed?

The notice makes it seem like I am delinquent in paying the full debt owed when we agreed upon a payment plan.

Any advice is appreciated. Truthfully, I am struggling to pay the monthly payment due and I cant afford a lawyer but I may have to consider it if this is malicious practice. I have made all the payments on time.