summons before bankruptcy by collection agency

[wallstreet]

Question if you are given a summons from the court meaning in person for a credit collection civil law suit.

And you file bankruptcy the next day what happens to the court summons in Florida .

You have 20 days to give answer to summons what is the process basic general process .

[newbie2]

Your answer to the summons would be "I filed for bankruptcy". Call the clerks office of the court that issue the summons and let them know that you filed for bankruptcy, and ask what the procedure is. Filing bankruptcy will stop collection attempts, but you may need to give the court your case # (of your bankruptcy filing) in order to put a halt to the court proceedings.

[wallstreet]

Your answer to the summons would be "I filed for bankruptcy". Call the clerks office of the court that issue the summons and let them know that you filed for bankruptcy, and ask what the procedure is. Filing bankruptcy will stop collection attempts, but you may need to give the court your case # (of your bankruptcy filing) in order to put a halt to the court proceedings.

Thanks for the info iam being taken to court by a collector for credit card debt and i have not sent my BK paper work in yet so were filing after summons do you see that as a problem. Let me ask you this if someone is the head of house hold and wife doesnt work can they garnish your wages can they take your car you have payed in full or can they come into your home for minor assets . i owe 30.000 dollars most of it is interest its really 20 k .
I pay all my bills medical mostly thats how i got in this mess. no insurance so hospital bills took over my income . Basically there is no money left to pay when the weekly check comes for anything thats why iam filling BK .

If my house payments are three times my weekly check do they take that into a garnishment factor . Also i took out a hardship 401 k loan to pay medical bills and i pay that back out of my weekly check .

If the collector is not from this state can he really take me to court . What is the worst they can do .

[ValleYum]

FL exemptions are here: http://www.legalconsumer.com/bankruptcy/laws/#Florida

There is a brochure from the Florida Bar Association called: Debtors' Rights In Florida: Claiming Your Exemptions From Judgments It will likely answer many of your questions.

You can find it at this link: http://www.floridabar.org/tfb/TFBCon...d!OpenDocument

Good luck!!

[AngelinaCatHub]

Thanks for the info iam being taken to court by a collector for credit card debt and i have not sent my BK paper work in yet so were filing after summons do you see that as a problem. Let me ask you this if someone is the head of house hold and wife doesnt work can they garnish your wages can they take your car you have payed in full or can they come into your home for minor assets . i owe 30.000 dollars most of it is interest its really 20 k .
I pay all my bills medical mostly thats how i got in this mess. no insurance so hospital bills took over my income . Basically there is no money left to pay when the weekly check comes for anything thats why iam filling BK .

If my house payments are three times my weekly check do they take that into a garnishment factor . Also i took out a hardship 401 k loan to pay medical bills and i pay that back out of my weekly check .

If the collector is not from this state can he really take me to court . What is the worst they can do .

All is moot once you file. No actions of tort will go on during the automatic stay. Your Court will be given what's called "A suggestion of bankruptcy" that will be entered into your Court Case docket. By courtesy, simply notice the Clerk of Court with your BK case number and reference the suit docket number to them. Other than that, no action needs to be taken. If it was a CC debt your BK will discharge it and then there is no case anymore. If you are dismissed and do not get discharged, everything starts where it is left off. An unlikely scenario if your case is normal and honest. 'Hub

[lichteda]

Hub is right on... the automatic stay will block all (with only a few execeptions) the creditors from proceedings against the debitors.

[wallstreet]

We do have a lawyer who is doing our BK but i like to get input for my own benefit to help with the problems and waiting to see if anyone has had a problem like this before.

Iam just a little bit uptight about this i make about 49,000 a year and support my house hold i can pay my regular bills fine but have no funds to pay off credit debt due to a heart attack two years ago which i did not have insurance .

I payed the doctor but did not have enough for all the bills from the hospital plus the amounts were in the 140,000 area .

So i took my 401 k and payed out what i could but there is still bills coming each month which we cant pay .

I have a hardship 401 k loan and pay back 154.00 dollars a week out of my check will they look at this as a payment like a mortgage loan meaning a secured loan or what .

My income is 49 k does that divide up between my wife and me who deosnt work for the mean test .

Basically we have a home mortage no car payments one car and the 401 k loan plus electric and phone and living expenses ive been paying my home off for 10 years never missed a payment . My house payment is 1400 a month.

Will they come into my home and take my stuff or take my car or my wages if they do ill lose my home .

How does the trustee look at this i really did not intend to not pay but thats what happened . Thanks for the info

[tobee43]

We do have a lawyer who is doing our BK but i like to get input for my own benefit to help with the problems and waiting to see if anyone has had a problem like this before.

Iam just a little bit uptight about this i make about 49,000 a year and support my house hold i can pay my regular bills fine but have no funds to pay off credit debt due to a heart attack two years ago which i did not have insurance .

I payed the doctor but did not have enough for all the bills from the hospital plus the amounts were in the 140,000 area .

So i took my 401 k and payed out what i could but there is still bills coming each month which we cant pay .

I have a hardship 401 k loan and pay back 154.00 dollars a week out of my check will they look at this as a payment like a mortgage loan meaning a secured loan or what .

My income is 49 k does that divide up between my wife and me who deosnt work for the mean test .

Basically we have a home mortage no car payments one car and the 401 k loan plus electric and phone and living expenses ive been paying my home off for 10 years never missed a payment . My house payment is 1400 a month.

Will they come into my home and take my stuff or take my car or my wages if they do ill lose my home .

How does the trustee look at this i really did not intend to not pay but thats what happened . Thanks for the info

if you have a lawyer just call the firm and if your petition is already completed at their office have the amend the question pertaining to any outstand suits. on the summons there is a docket number, it should be listed on the petition you submit to the bk court when you file.

we also filed here in florida with over 200k worth of medical bills, we also took out our 401 and used it to pay bills.

i don't know what sort of firm you hired and you are still so frighten about them coming to take your stuff or your car. you atty should sit down with you or should have and explained everything to you in detail. since you are in florida your house is exempt, but you will not be able to take the wild card exemption. you are still entitled to certain things to keep, but that all should have been explained to you.

do you intent to keep the house, or surrender it, or pay and stay????

[wallstreet]

if you have a lawyer just call the firm and if your petition is already completed at their office have the amend the question pertaining to any outstand suits. on the summons there is a docket number, it should be listed on the petition you submit to the bk court when you file.

we also filed here in florida with over 200k worth of medical bills, we also took out our 401 and used it to pay bills.

i don't know what sort of firm you hired and you are still so frighten about them coming to take your stuff or your car. you atty should sit down with you or should have and explained everything to you in detail. since you are in florida your house is exempt, but you will not be able to take the wild card exemption. you are still entitled to certain things to keep, but that all should have been explained to you.

do you intent to keep the house, or surrender it, or pay and stay????

We are going to keep the house we have been here many years we were looking for some input on the issues i know i can ask the lawyer but just wanted to get some input from someone who actually did it in real life .

We are not wanting to give up anything so your saying that this could possibly happen to us .

[tobee43]

i'm actually not saying anything. no can really tell you if the trustee will be interested your assets or not.

if you intend to keep the house here in florida, that will mean you are excluded from the wild-card exemption, therefore what you can keep will be limited as your atty can advise you. actually, i believe we were only allowed $150 in cash in the bank when we filed and a very small amount of assets, actually less than 1k at the time. since we were basically homeless at the time, and didn't own a home, but surrendered it and it was located in a different state, were were allowed to exempt the entire wild-card amount for our car, if not, we may have been required to "buy it back" from the trustee since it had no loan on it.

if the trustee feels you have a house they could have someone come to your home and evaluate you belongings and their value. some trustees do this and sell what they deem is required.

[catleg]

In theory you shouldn't have to take any action.
I had a number of lawsuits "in flight" against my wife and I.
All went away with no action on our part.
You can put the opposing attorney in your creditor matrix as "notify only" to be safe.
As always, YMMV.

[tobee43]

In theory you shouldn't have to take any action.
I had a number of lawsuits "in flight" against my wife and I.
All went away with no action on our part.
You can put the opposing attorney in your creditor matrix as "notify only" to be safe.
As always, YMMV.

cat...YMMV?? LOL!! an inquiring mind would like to know

[ValleYum]

Not cat but - YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary

[markinva]

summons before bankruptcy by collection agency

Garnishment and property seizure laws vary highly among states and the ability to keep your property depends a lot on if U are doing a Chap 7 or a 13. Your attorney should be offering to prepare an "answer" to the summons and/or advise you if you should appear in court. In most cases, if the debtor does not answer a summons, the creditor will win a judgment. That will start the process that will allow the creditor to garnish wages (and bank accounts) (in VA - 25% can be garnished and they can take everything in your bank accounts - differs among the states) and seize property. My experience with timelines: quit paying May 2010, creditor got a judgment in March 2011, bank account was taken in Aug 2011 (but I had already opened a new account elsewhere and been keeping most of my cash on-hand) Filing BK will stop all such collection activities. U have a right to get a fresh start thru BK. Good luck to you.

[tobee43]

Not cat but - YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary

of course!!!! and as all well know, you mileage always does vary!

markinva, yes, however this OP is in florida and has no wildcard for an exemptions, in other posts is going for a chapter 7, so the TT will take a look at the assets if they are over the limit by even a bit. also in florida there is only a percentage of the head of household with respect to wage garnishing.