Help! Just got served!!!!!! FREAKING OUT!

[ilovemycaitybug]

I was just greeted at my door by a Sheriff with papers from the district court saying Discover is suing me! I haven't yet filed, but am going to as soon as my husband can get his payroll information to the attorney (he doesn't get pay stubs as he is just issued a hand-written check). It says

"you have been sued by the above named Plaintiff, and you are directed to file a written answer to the attached petition in the county court stated above within 20 days after service of this summons upon you, exclusive of the day of service"...

on the next page it talks about how I defaulted on the loan and they are wanting my employment information from the Oklahoma Employment and Securities Commission. I am assuming this means they are wanting to garnish my wages?

This came from an attorney in my state that was hired by Discover. A couple of months back they contacted me and I gave them my attorney's information since I was planning on filing but hadn't yet. He was fully retained.

What does all of this mean??? What do I need to do??? Will speeding up the filing process make this go away?

HELP PLEASE, I'M FREAKING OUT!!

[SamanthaJones]

Take a deep breath through your nose to the count of 4-

Then exhale slowly out of your mouth to the count of 6.
The worst thing that could happen is you lose a lawsuit.
Maybe, they thought you were yanking their chain while back when you mentioned a possible BK filing, and since they got nothing official they took action.
Anyway- you can't be garnished without a judgment, and they cannot get wage information to garnish before the case is even heard- else you'd be deemed guilty already????

[CPO]

ilove,

First, relax. This is only the normal course of events.

Again, relax, and get your act together.

You have 20 days to respond. Do some 'net research on how to respond to a lawsuit, but this general info might help:

You have the option of filing "answer" to the suit, or filing a pre-trial motion.

If you file an answer, your case heads to trial.

If you file pre-trial motion, then you can delay the proceedings for many months.

Many if not all the complaints filed by these collection attorney's are full of holes, shoddy and downright incorrect.

Use this to your advantage.

The lawyer does not expect you to fight at any level. They figure your gonna freak out and cave immediately.

Carefully examine the documents for errors. Find any? File a motion to dismiss... due to needed clarification or incorrect data in the original complaint. Copy to the court clerk, copy to the plaintiff's attorney.

Or, even better, wait until the 18th, or 19th day of the 20 day response period, file the motion to dismiss, again, copy to the court clerk, copy to the plaintiff's attorney.

You file pre-trial motions for each and every defect you find, but string them out into a time-line fashioned to give yourself as much time as necessary.

Check the procedure with your court clerk.

It's up to the plaintiff or the defendent to request a hearing on each motion. Obviously, you don't want to request any hearings. So, it's up to the busy little plaintiff attorney to request a hearing on his now amended motion.

He submits an amended motion, you submit a new motion to dismiss, then pre-trial motions for the defects in his new amended complaint.

Get it.

You could drag this on for months.

Contact your court clerk, see if they have specific information on how they want cases to be handled in their court. Clerks can be wonderful information sources.

Take a vacation day, spend it in the court. Amazing what you can learn.

The point is, with a little planning, you can frustrate an unexpecting collections attorney with legit but minor mistakes in his filing.

If nothing else, a pre-trial motion asking for a 30 day delay so you can contact a CPA to calculate the fee, interest and balance of the account will buy you that 30 days.

The judge will most likely provide you with what ever time you may need in the short run.

Go to a book store, library and the 'net and find out how to defend yourself in court.

Above all else, don't be stepped on. Stand up for yourself, GET ANGRY and DO what is right.

Don't be victimized by your own fear.

Get rightous, get educated, and go kick some **ss.

We all need it.

Best regards,

CPO

P.S. Do not provide any bank account information or wage criteria on you or your husband until the plaintiff (Discover) actually wins the case, IF they do. If the plaintiffs attorney asks for the info, tell them they will have to get the Judge to compel you to release the info.
The judge will not do so until the case is complete.....

[ilovemycaitybug]

LOL.. Thanks for the comic relief So, this doesn't mean they HAVE a judgement, just that they are wanting to get one, right?

[ilovemycaitybug]

CPO - Thanks for the response! I really don't want to drag this out if not necessary... I'm hoping my attorney can get this filed before 20 days is up. Is this unlikely? I've already given him everything but my husband's pay info.

Thanks!

[SamanthaJones]

Can't get a judgment without a win at trial.

At least it's not to that point YET~
I'd like to hear more about filing those motions to dismiss, adn etc- anyone in here ever try that? I am sure the lawyer for the Discover suit is probably just going through the motions, maybe on 100 cases?, and that would leave lots of room for error?

[lrprn]

CPO - Thanks for the response! I really don't want to drag this out if not necessary... I'm hoping my attorney can get this filed before 20 days is up. Is this unlikely? I've already given him everything but my husband's pay info.

Thanks!

ILMCB, if you can file before the 20 days are up, then Discover just wasted their money because the automatic stay will protect you . Tell your husband to get his rear in gear! Also have you completed the required pre-filing education and given your certificate to your lawyer? That MUST be done before you can file - no exceptions (except in very rare cases where the debtor truly can't afford the $35-50 fee).

Be sure to call your lawyer in the morning and tell him you've been served so he can get things rolling. If it looks like you are going to go over the 20 days, ask your lawyer to file the stalling tactics CPO mentions. Just be sure that he shows up in court on the date the court will assign so Discover doesn't get a default decision against you. Much safer to have your lawyer handing this than trying to do it on your own if you aren't very familiar with court processes. Keep us posted on what happens, ok?

[SinkingFast]

First,........... Discover is one of the more aggressive Creditors out there. They will sue when no one else does.

You've been served with a summons. Nothing has happened yet. You have a time period, 20 days, to respond. If you do, as CPO suggested, you can delay Discover for a while. That should give your attny plenty of time to file your BK.

Once you file, the suit process stops dead in the water. Discover will have to pick up their marbles and go find someone else to play with.

If you don't get filed and Discover does happen to get a Judgement against you, it's not the end of the world. You file BK any way. That will take care of the underlying debt behind the Judgement. Then it's a matter of filing the appropriate paperwork at the Court House to have the Judgement vacated and lifed off your Credit Reports.

One step at a time. One day at a time. One fire at a time. Waiting longer to file BK may actually work in your favor down the road. So a little headache now could wind up saving you bigger headaches in the end.

[Spartan]

For what it's worth, i got a default judgement from Providian ($8000) b/c I was too tapped out to do anything about the suit. They never got a dime out of the judgement. Nothing come of it. I filed. And after discharge next month, I will go pay $5.00 to get the judgement vacated.

Others I owed many times more and they never did anything. Discover never sued me neither. Probably b/c Providian beat them to it and they saw that Providian wasn't collecting anything and wised up...


Granted, it was scary at first. Being sued and getting a judgement and then requested to be disposed. But nothing came of it. I moved and they couldn't find me... until I renewed my driver license like 3-4 yrs later. When they contacted me again, I asked for debt verfication b/c I felt like making the vultures do some work. By the time they got back to me about 'working on retrieving the info' a month later, I have already filed.

[CATCHMEIFYOUCAN]

I would of thought credit unions would be the first in line to try and sue-get judgements etc, I had $10,000 credit card and a loan balance of $10,000 with the same credit union (no one hollaring a suit or objection); and to top it off I had 2 credit cards each of $10,000 line of credit and a loan of $18,000 (every one unsecured even the loans) from another credit union - no hoopering and hollaring AND YOU KNOW I was on pins and needles all throughout my BK expecting objections since most of my charges were cash advances. I GUESS its all about timing, and I'm not talking about timing your BK from your advances to your filing date either, as I know that I only had like 2-3 months between my advances and my original filing date.

I don't understand why some of the same creditors pursue for less or even more on different Bk'ers??? I guess its the roll of the dice. Like audits, why do some get an audit while others don't or should!

CMIYC Just my thoughts

[bige1030]

Yeah...I thought my bank would object to my discharge of their overdraft protection, but they didn't. Luckily I filed @ end of June 06 and my last charge against it was in April 06...but yeah, they just let it slide, and I discharged my ODP and all of my credit card debt!!!

Chapter 7 has treated me well...and I'm glad you got to get into Chapter 7. Hopefully your trustee doesn't care for any assets, CMIYC. Good luck to you, buddy!

[CATCHMEIFYOUCAN]

Bige1030

Yeah...I thought my bank would object to my discharge of their overdraft protection, but they didn't. Luckily I filed @ end of June 06 and my last charge against it was in April 06...but yeah, they just let it slide, and I discharged my ODP and all of my credit card debt!!!
Chapter 7 has treated me well...and I'm glad you got to get into Chapter 7. Hopefully your trustee doesn't care for any assets, CMIYC. Good luck to you, buddy!

Wow you filed a month earlier than I did and even had your latest cash advance about the same time I had in APRIL, bet your advance wasn't as big as mine though ($6000), so you see why I was on pins and needles all the way through my BK. I had a small overdraft with CHEVY CHASE (only $500) which I added (had to add) to my Bk list of creditors. I never missed a payment and paid them the minimum the day before I filed. They ended up Charging it off during the BK (can they do that?). They are also in trouble for continuing to send me automatic statements throughout my Bk (violation of the automatic stay), but now that I'm discharged I doubt the lawyer will ever do anything to them now. I guess why add insult to injury? I GUESS.

Thanks BIGE1030 I need the luck, I need my case CLOSED ! But I will agree being able to convert from Ch13 to Ch7 the Judge has treated me fair - "Either Quit one job and convert to a 7 or see $800 for the next 5 years!"

[pitts48]

Hi there,
I was served a summons on 9/9/2006 stating I was being sued by Capital One for a credit card debt, and I had 20 days to file a written response with the clerk of the court. At first I wrote up my response but decided that I would talk to a BK lawyer in case I might have to file BK7. He responded on the 20th day and I have not heard any thing else from the lawyers or court. It's been over 5 months now. I'm thinking of filing in april or may.

[BKTango]

You have some time still, not alot but some. Get your hubby on the ball fast. Most of all don't panic, it's one step in a large row of steps. You already have the upper hand. Also not sure if you could where you are but with us, as we were at the end of our answering the summons period right before our paperwork was completed, our lawyer answered it for us with the court by filing a presumption of bankruptcy (I think that is what it was called) paper. It stopped them dead in the water as I case was filed shortly after.

[SamanthaJones]

pitts48-

How long did you go without paying that creditor before they filed that suit?