Scared. Cert. Letter today threatening suit. Haven't filed yet. Help!

[clc08]

I hope this isn't a double post. I was proofing my post and my finger slipped and it went poof.

We are in mid pre-planning for chpt. 7 and have retained an attorney. He told us to stop paying our bills in Sept. Today a cert. letter came from our Credit Union. Actually, it was from the small claims dept. stating if they did not hear back from us by Dec. 6th we would be sued. We can't file until January. Can't get our attorney today. He basically told us he needed to hear from us if we got sued. We are past due on this account ( 1 of many) since Sept. on a $5900 loan-liner(unsecured). Payment due is $175. Could we buy some time by offering to pay a smaller amount? I'm scared to death...can't call husband, he just started a new job, and although the wages are very low, I don't want to compromise him with a call from the wife..... Anybody here with some experience or advice? Thanks.

[keepmine]

Just calm down.
If you're filing in Jan. you have plenty of time.
Just because they gave a deadline doesn't mean they can get a suit filed on the 6th.
It'll take a few weeks { many courts will close the 3rd week in Dec. for the holidays} then, if they do sue you'll have 30 days or so to respond. {depending on your states Rules of Civil Procedure}. After you respond with a general denial it'll be slated for trial and that trial date can be months away.
Let your lawyer know about the letter but I'd not contact the creditor and setup any payment arrangements. That's just money down a rathole since the debt will be discharged anyway.

[tcreegan]

Hi clc,

As keepmine said, you have plenty of time...they have to serve you, you have 20-30 days to respond, atty files an answer, wait another 20-30 days, they respond, another 20-30 days....you get the idea, it would easy to delay a suit till June much less Jan

Once you file, the BK notice gets sent over the suit gets dismissed

Your fine, hang in there,

Tom in Colo

[dumpinmydebt]

Don't worry. Seriously. You have PLENTY of time.

Say they file suit on December 6th. You will have around 28 (depending on where you live so you might want to check that) days to respond to the summons. File a response denying all accusations. You will then probably have another 30 days before a court date to mediate. You can then (about a week before) request a continuance stating you are in the process of filing. You will probably get another 2-3 weeks. Say you miss the next court date and you get a default judgment. They will have to wait around 30 days before they can request a garnishment. Then they have to give you a 15 day (depending on district) warning of the pending garnishment. Then they can send it to the employer to have them garnish.

So let's do the math:

28 days to respond + 30 days before mediation + 21 days for continuance + 30 days to pay judgment + 15 day warning = approximately 17 weeks before a garnishment would be put in place which equals around April 4th, 2011.

So see, you have PLENTY of time to file. Stop worrying about it.

[clc08]

OK, thanks all for your kind replies. I know you have heard this before, but this whole ordeal is so stressful. I can't believe we are in this position...husband lost his job, then I was being forced out of mine so I took early retirement. I should have let them fire me, I guess. Anyway, we're going to lose our home and have been selling stuff to get by. I've been having such horrible anxiety some days I can't even go to the store. It's ridiculous. But I've been reading some of the other threads, and I see people do survive this and come out the other side. Anyway, thanks for your support.....

[tcreegan]

Hang in there clc, you are in good company here!

I can't believe we are in this position... ...you and a million other folks, literally!

Tom in Colo

[jacko]

How much debt do you have?

I owe at least 70k by now on unsecured CC and over 10K on non discharged debt. Thus far have two judgments and have not paid one cent. I see no reason to file BK anytime soon while unemployed and no health insurance.

I hope this isn't a double post. I was proofing my post and my finger slipped and it went poof.

We are in mid pre-planning for chpt. 7 and have retained an attorney. He told us to stop paying our bills in Sept. Today a cert. letter came from our Credit Union. Actually, it was from the small claims dept. stating if they did not hear back from us by Dec. 6th we would be sued. We can't file until January. Can't get our attorney today. He basically told us he needed to hear from us if we got sued. We are past due on this account ( 1 of many) since Sept. on a $5900 loan-liner(unsecured). Payment due is $175. Could we buy some time by offering to pay a smaller amount? I'm scared to death...can't call husband, he just started a new job, and although the wages are very low, I don't want to compromise him with a call from the wife..... Anybody here with some experience or advice? Thanks.

[clc08]

Found out we can't file until Feb. Husband's income down past 3 years, finally lost job in 1st week of July. I was forced out of my senior RN position (as were others...they are hiring newbies for cheap) in August and took early retirement instead of trying to find another job. Got my last pay in Sept which throws our filing into Feb. We couldn't have made it on my income and husband's unemployment, but my income would have nixed a means test. Attorney reviewed our case and said Chpt 7 was the way to go. Husband found employment about 2 weeks ago, will bring in about 37K and my SS wil be >13K. This is down from our previous income of around 137k. We have about 70K unsecured debt, student loan balance about 22K for the child of his former wife (brief marriage, not his child....but he is stuck with it and it can not be discharged.....) a mortgage and 2nd above the value of our home which we will lose. A vehicle we are making payments on, and a junk truck paid off but still runs. That's about it.

[tcreegan]

Hi again clc,

Sounds pretty standard, no problems I can see. You have quit paying the mortgage and second, right?

Tom in Colo

[clc08]

Hi Tom:L yes, we have stopped paying the mortgage and the 2nd. Got a letter from the bank last week with a form to fill out (debts, income, letter of hardship) saying they might be able to get us assistance, or if we didn't do that checking a box saying we would list the house. We didn't respond. I would imagine we will be getting more certified letters soon. Husband wants to move to a warmer state after this is over. 1st he was talking about moving out of the country to a place where our limited income would go farther...like Panama, or some other place that the ex-pats rave about. I don't think I can do it.

[tcreegan]

Indiana to Panama ?! That is taking the 'snowbird' concept too far....

[dumpinmydebt]

Hang in there. We're all in this together. If you need to vent or need support, we are all here.