Hi
I originally was starting towards filing a little over a year ago. Various circumstances delayed it at the time, and then health/medical issues made things get put off even further...
Anyway - I've found out that one of the collection agencies that a credit card debt was sold to has filed suit against me. Apparently two lawsuits, even though it's only one debt???? I have NOT been served, in any way at all. The only reason I know about it is that I received a couple solicitation letters in the mail from attorneys, telling me I had a pending lawsuit & offering their services. I looked it up on the county website & sure enough, there they were.
From what I can see, the "pre-trial hearing" on the first case is scheduled for about a week from now (Sept 12 - one week from Monday). The paperwork was filed with the court on August 9th, and I still have never received any notification, not been served or anything. The second case shows a pre-trial hearing of Sept. 25. When do they bother to ever notify a person? The day before the hearing??? I'm 99% certain that these are both about the same debt - I have 6 creditors & I can account for the others I believe, so this company (Portfolio Recovery) only has one debt, so how can they sue me twice?
I'm not sure what to do... Do I go to the court & request the documentation? Do I just show up at the hearing, even if I never get a summons?
I had paid about half the fee to my BK attorney -- then over these past months, I'd been trying to save money for a medical reason -- but I could take that money to finish paying him & try to file as quickly as possible. I have a feeling he would want me to wait, as my bank account wouldn't look like "normal" right now -- I'd been scrimping super-tight on groceries & doing without on some things, just to put money aside -- and then now, have transferred money back from savings into checking, in thoughts of needing to go ahead & pay off the attorney... So my bank statements from the last few months *could* be interpreted as showing that I supposedly have a small bit of disposable income each month (that I allegedly could be paying creditors with, to a partial degree). But it was not 'normal' circumstances -- i.e. I was down to $25-30 a week on groceries at the very most, keeping A/C turned off as much as bearable to keep the power bill down, no clothing or 'luxury' purchases at all, I skipped doctor appts I should have had etc - just cutting spending to the barest level, in order to save up some money for a rather crucial need.
My only income is social security disability, and a small federal-employee-survivor/retirement benefit, both of which are exempt. BUT, since I had money in savings (which is now back in checking) -- even if I spend that money to pay the attorney, I'm afraid the account would look like "co-mingled funds" and the bank would freeze it if Portfolio gets a judgement on me. (The money in savings had originally come from my social security, but since I moved it about, I know that kills the exemption on it?)
Should I pay my attorney, then open a new bank account, and be careful to not let any transfer go into it, just my direct deposits? Or should I just pull any extra money out of my account, and keep cash on hand to live on, in case they freeze the account? If they were to get a judgement after the Sept 12th hearing, I couldn't switch my direct deposits to another bank in time, I don't think....I could pull out existing money, but then when the next deposit went in, wouldn't they just grab that?
As far as filing for exemptions, when/if they get a judgement -- do the courts allow time to file exemptions *before* they seize property and/or bank accounts, or do they grab first, and then you have to "prove exemption" and get your property back? With the lack of notice so far, I'm leery about things proceeding into a judgement, and me not receiving timely notice of any further actions they take.
My car is the only item they could possibly take - and it's not worth it, if they are smart about it.... but still...I know sometimes things are seized even if it isn't in the creditors interest to do so. About 20 years ago, when my husband was still alive, he had a sudden health emergency & was put out of work for months. We fell behind on some non-essential bills, one of which was a computer we were making payments on. We owed the computer shop something like $800 on it. We never received *any* notification about a lawsuit, a judgement or anything at all -- just one day, a sheriff's deputy showed up at the door with a court order to seize our only vehicle (which probably wasn't worth more than $1500 at the time) . Luckily, the local legal aid where we lived at the time was great - they even sent someone out to our home, since we had no vehicle to get to their office & I couldn't leave my husband unattended anyway -- and they worked everything out for us, and got our vehicle returned within about 10 days or so. But still - that haunts me, that someone could go that far, without us ever receiving ANY notice whatsoever about any legal action being taken against us. The fact that someone filed paperwork for a lawsuit weeks ago, the hearing is only a week away now, and I still haven't received any notice at all -- *shudder*, it gives me chills...
Sorry to be so lengthy - I'm just freaking out here, I'm upset at myself that I didn't just go ahead & file BK before... upset that I was trying to save money & that action apparently is going against me now - sheesh! So damned depressed...and have been for months now, due to the issue I was attempting to save up for, in hopes of correcting it!! Some days, I can't get out of bed hardly, and I never leave my house, other than to get groceries & necessities... LOL, well that has saved on gas, at least! I've filled up my car one time since last December.... I wake up every morning & i just want to scream, because I'm still here.... so, I finally decide to try to 'fix' things a bit, I've got an appt with both a psychiatrist and a therapist scheduled in the upcoming weeks, to get back on meds & some therapy (diagnosed as severe bipolar-2 quite some years back, among several other such issues) I just started to feel like maybe I was going to get things together a teeny-tiny little bit - then whammy, this lawsuit pops up out of nowhere, and I just want to crawl into a hole & never come out.... No family, no close friends, no one at all for any moral support - it gets so exhausting to try to deal with crap all alone all the time.... I know it's my own fault that I got into debt in the first place, I'm not shirking responsibility there...I went off the deep end after my dear wonderful husband died from a sudden illness 6 years ago (he was only 52) & I was out of my head & made a lot of really stupid mistakes over the next few years after he died, and I'm paying for it now... but I'm just so so tired & don't know which way to turn at this particular junction.... More than anything, I'm just so PO'd at myself for not going ahead with the BK before.... so stupid....
I originally was starting towards filing a little over a year ago. Various circumstances delayed it at the time, and then health/medical issues made things get put off even further...
Anyway - I've found out that one of the collection agencies that a credit card debt was sold to has filed suit against me. Apparently two lawsuits, even though it's only one debt???? I have NOT been served, in any way at all. The only reason I know about it is that I received a couple solicitation letters in the mail from attorneys, telling me I had a pending lawsuit & offering their services. I looked it up on the county website & sure enough, there they were.
From what I can see, the "pre-trial hearing" on the first case is scheduled for about a week from now (Sept 12 - one week from Monday). The paperwork was filed with the court on August 9th, and I still have never received any notification, not been served or anything. The second case shows a pre-trial hearing of Sept. 25. When do they bother to ever notify a person? The day before the hearing??? I'm 99% certain that these are both about the same debt - I have 6 creditors & I can account for the others I believe, so this company (Portfolio Recovery) only has one debt, so how can they sue me twice?
I'm not sure what to do... Do I go to the court & request the documentation? Do I just show up at the hearing, even if I never get a summons?
I had paid about half the fee to my BK attorney -- then over these past months, I'd been trying to save money for a medical reason -- but I could take that money to finish paying him & try to file as quickly as possible. I have a feeling he would want me to wait, as my bank account wouldn't look like "normal" right now -- I'd been scrimping super-tight on groceries & doing without on some things, just to put money aside -- and then now, have transferred money back from savings into checking, in thoughts of needing to go ahead & pay off the attorney... So my bank statements from the last few months *could* be interpreted as showing that I supposedly have a small bit of disposable income each month (that I allegedly could be paying creditors with, to a partial degree). But it was not 'normal' circumstances -- i.e. I was down to $25-30 a week on groceries at the very most, keeping A/C turned off as much as bearable to keep the power bill down, no clothing or 'luxury' purchases at all, I skipped doctor appts I should have had etc - just cutting spending to the barest level, in order to save up some money for a rather crucial need.
My only income is social security disability, and a small federal-employee-survivor/retirement benefit, both of which are exempt. BUT, since I had money in savings (which is now back in checking) -- even if I spend that money to pay the attorney, I'm afraid the account would look like "co-mingled funds" and the bank would freeze it if Portfolio gets a judgement on me. (The money in savings had originally come from my social security, but since I moved it about, I know that kills the exemption on it?)
Should I pay my attorney, then open a new bank account, and be careful to not let any transfer go into it, just my direct deposits? Or should I just pull any extra money out of my account, and keep cash on hand to live on, in case they freeze the account? If they were to get a judgement after the Sept 12th hearing, I couldn't switch my direct deposits to another bank in time, I don't think....I could pull out existing money, but then when the next deposit went in, wouldn't they just grab that?
As far as filing for exemptions, when/if they get a judgement -- do the courts allow time to file exemptions *before* they seize property and/or bank accounts, or do they grab first, and then you have to "prove exemption" and get your property back? With the lack of notice so far, I'm leery about things proceeding into a judgement, and me not receiving timely notice of any further actions they take.
My car is the only item they could possibly take - and it's not worth it, if they are smart about it.... but still...I know sometimes things are seized even if it isn't in the creditors interest to do so. About 20 years ago, when my husband was still alive, he had a sudden health emergency & was put out of work for months. We fell behind on some non-essential bills, one of which was a computer we were making payments on. We owed the computer shop something like $800 on it. We never received *any* notification about a lawsuit, a judgement or anything at all -- just one day, a sheriff's deputy showed up at the door with a court order to seize our only vehicle (which probably wasn't worth more than $1500 at the time) . Luckily, the local legal aid where we lived at the time was great - they even sent someone out to our home, since we had no vehicle to get to their office & I couldn't leave my husband unattended anyway -- and they worked everything out for us, and got our vehicle returned within about 10 days or so. But still - that haunts me, that someone could go that far, without us ever receiving ANY notice whatsoever about any legal action being taken against us. The fact that someone filed paperwork for a lawsuit weeks ago, the hearing is only a week away now, and I still haven't received any notice at all -- *shudder*, it gives me chills...
Sorry to be so lengthy - I'm just freaking out here, I'm upset at myself that I didn't just go ahead & file BK before... upset that I was trying to save money & that action apparently is going against me now - sheesh! So damned depressed...and have been for months now, due to the issue I was attempting to save up for, in hopes of correcting it!! Some days, I can't get out of bed hardly, and I never leave my house, other than to get groceries & necessities... LOL, well that has saved on gas, at least! I've filled up my car one time since last December.... I wake up every morning & i just want to scream, because I'm still here.... so, I finally decide to try to 'fix' things a bit, I've got an appt with both a psychiatrist and a therapist scheduled in the upcoming weeks, to get back on meds & some therapy (diagnosed as severe bipolar-2 quite some years back, among several other such issues) I just started to feel like maybe I was going to get things together a teeny-tiny little bit - then whammy, this lawsuit pops up out of nowhere, and I just want to crawl into a hole & never come out.... No family, no close friends, no one at all for any moral support - it gets so exhausting to try to deal with crap all alone all the time.... I know it's my own fault that I got into debt in the first place, I'm not shirking responsibility there...I went off the deep end after my dear wonderful husband died from a sudden illness 6 years ago (he was only 52) & I was out of my head & made a lot of really stupid mistakes over the next few years after he died, and I'm paying for it now... but I'm just so so tired & don't know which way to turn at this particular junction.... More than anything, I'm just so PO'd at myself for not going ahead with the BK before.... so stupid....
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