How do I "buy time" after getting a summons for credit card

[karibaa]

I received a summons yesterday, and the court has given me 20 days to file an answer. I'm kind of shocked of this because I "only" owe $3000 and my income is VA disability which can't be garnished. Any ideas on how to get an extra 20 days on top of my other 20, as I'd really like to wait 40 days before I file bankruptcy?

[justbroke]

A creditor would not know that you're collection proof. By "collection proof" I mean that they could get a judgement but they could never collect anything. So why would they sue you anyhow? Because they can get a judgement and then execute that against property (not your VA benefits), or just sit on it for 10-20 years and hope that you some day acquire something they can attach their judgement against. The amount, $3K, is not a low amount when a quick/cheap judgement suit (below $5,000) will cost them only a few hundred dollars.

You would have to answer the complaint and that may or may not help.

Maybe bcohen will chime in with some strategies.

[bcohen]

As I have stated on other threads, responding to a lawsuit for the purpose of delaying the inevitable judgment can be a useful strategy, but you really have to consider what is your endgame, and what do you gain by delaying. If you are definitely planning to file for bankruptcy, then responding to the lawsuit is useful only if the time that you gain would allow you to spend down non-exempt funds, or put sufficient time between your filing and your last use of credit.

When I was sued by Discover Bank, through the law firm Gurstel Chargo, I was back in school (university) and my bank account was flush with money from my summer job--money that I needed to use for living expenses during the school year. For that reason, it was worth my time and money to fight the lawsuit tooth-and-nail and drag it out as long as possible so that I could spend down all my non-exempt funds, and then file for bankruptcy as a "no asset" case. Had the suit been filed toward the end of the school year, when my funds would have been very low anyways, I wouldn't have bothered to respond, and gone straight to Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

In order to fight the lawsuit, you will need to prepare certain legal documents--an answer and possibly an affidavit of service--and these must be in the proper form, and served upon the plaintiff in the manner dictated by your local rules of civil procedure. What I decided to do was to search the county court records online for cases filed by this plaintiff (Discover Bank) within the past few years, and write down the case number of any cases in which the defendant bothered to respond. It should be noted that the overwhelming majority of cases--more than 99% of them--were never answered by the defendant, and went straight to default judgment and garnishment/placing of liens.

After compiling a list of cases which were contested, I went to the courthouse during business hours, had those case files pulled and copies made for me. This was not cheap; I spent almost $300 on copying fees at $1 per page, money well spent for my purposes. I then used those documents as a template to prepare my own answer and affidavit of service, as well as my discovery requests (which are submitted later on as the case proceeds). At every step of the way, there are more costs: it costs money to file the answer and affidavit of service with the court, and it costs money to actually serve the answer upon the plaintiff. These costs continue when you file discovery requests, motions, etc. Of course, the costs are adding up for the plaintiff as well as for you. Their court costs, as well as their attorney fees will be added to the judgment--which you hopefully will not be paying!

[karibaa]

Thank you for the responses. I just need to wait 90 days from Dec 31 because of a bill I paid. I'm not even sure if it will matter, as it was for gas for my car, but through my parents' corporation. Still figuring out if that is a preferential payment. I actually might have to find an attorney to answer that question for me : )