Got served - now ???? Questions

[uwishtoo]

I got served finally to go to court on November 1 - the debt collection place charged me of course over 400 for the attorney which ticks me off since I called them a week prior to them turning it over to the lawyer and told them I would have the money in a week but that wasnt good enough - I guess they get their jollies out of sticking people for extra money. But anyway - my question is this now - my summons says 1547.00 - but when I called them today to find out exactly how much (hoping they might take less) - they told me it was 1650.00 and I said what FOR ? They told me the extra 100 was for court costs and I saud uh, but we arent going to GO to court ! She told me that I had to pay for the court costs anyway - so my question is this - I have the money in hand - ready to hand over to them one way or the other. Since they are charging me for court costs 2 weeks PRIOR to even stepping foot in court then can this get any more expensive if I just say fine, see ya in court ? I am just basically being as big of pain as they have been to me and if it isnt going to cost ME anymore money to go to court and force their attorney to actually WORK for his money then can I will do just that and let the chips fall where they may - knowing all along that I have all the money to pay them now. I HATE the thought of just sending them the money and not making them pay the attorney - cause you know darn good and well that they wont have to pay for all the attorney fees if they dont go to court.

Is it going to cost me more just to be a b****? The other thing I want out of this is to have my day in court and tell the judge (whom I happen to know and used to work with in her beginning days as an attorney) - that I tried to settle this way before an attorney everr got involved - but THEY wouldnt allow me to -


Then what really got me to where I want to punch someones lights out is they asked me what I planned on doing about the other 400 bucks in there and I said oh you mean the ones that you JUST SENT ME last Saturday ??? I dont know yet - and she said oh so you arent planning on paying those debts off either ? I told her that was NOT what I just said - I said I DONT KNOW !!! I do know I am going to pay them for those also - all in one dollar bills and I am going to make them COUNT IT in front of me

[no_it_all]

Your post pretty much rambles on and on, so I am having a hard time following it. I <think> you just got served..is that right? Did you have your day in court yet? Who <exactly> says you owe $1650.00 ? Is it the Plaintiff or did the court already determine that amount? It cost money to serve a summons and get the civil claim on the docket, my guess is that is the source of the other charges that the Plaintiff is claiming. Court costs are not just the cost of actually appearing in court, but costs associated with getting there in the first place.

If all you received is a summons, you should be able to file an answer and some affirmative defenses so that you can get a couple of months of breathing room. Usually you have 20 days to file an answer. If not, then the Plaintiff can move for a judgement and usually they will prevail. But then again, you say you have the money so I would probably just pay it and call it a day...

[uwishtoo]

Your post pretty much rambles on and on, so I am having a hard time following it. I <think> you just got served..is that right? Did you have your day in court yet? Who <exactly> says you owe $1650.00 ? Is it the Plaintiff or did the court already determine that amount? It cost money to serve a summons and get the civil claim on the docket, my guess is that is the source of the other charges that the Plaintiff is claiming. Court costs are not just the cost of actually appearing in court, but costs associated with getting there in the first place.

If all you received is a summons, you should be able to file an answer and some affirmative defenses so that you can get a couple of months of breathing room. Usually you have 20 days to file an answer. If not, then the Plaintiff can move for a judgement and usually they will prevail. But then again, you say you have the money so I would probably just pay it and call it a day...

Sorry Yeah I ramble when I am ticked off - but yes, I got served - my initial debt was 1100 - which I offered to pay a couple of weeks before the attorneys got involved but the collections told me they had sent it to the attorney already which I just found out was a complete and utter lie judging by the date and time on it. So now the summons was for 1540.00 and NOW they say 1650.00 to do this without going to court - and yes I have the money but if they are going to charge me for court costs anyway I want to just be a pain to them and make their attorney show up and then I will say oh by the way I HAVE the money - here ya go. But I dont want to do that if it will cost even MORE money by actually showing up in court. That is just my main concern - can they tack on more and more fees ?

[uwishtoo]

chapter 13 ?

I got told by an attorney that even thoght I have already filed chapter 7 last year that I can stop all the court proceedings coming up for the hospital bills plus the ones in the collections that have yet to go through to an attorney by filing Chapter 13 and that I probably wouldnt have to pay a dime. How does this work ? I dont have any dispsoable income to make payments with so ...... ?? I just dont understand how I can get this out and done with without paying for it over time. Will this make my credit worse than it is after I filed chapter 7 ? I just dont want them to be able to garnish my wages and if I can settle for pennies on the dollar then I will do that rather than paying the whole thing. My credit is bad anyway so what the heck. And yes I DO have the money to pay this off - but I am having to borrow it from my mother which I hate to do (if you knew my mother you would know why) - lol - so if I can help having to borrow the money then I will do the chapter 13 if that will put an end to all of this. All total including the judgment my total bills owing are over 3000.00 if I grab everything - but if this is a repayment plan and I dont have anything to pay it back WITH then what ?

[GoingDown]

I got told by an attorney that even thoght I have already filed chapter 7 last year that I can stop all the court proceedings coming up for the hospital bills plus the ones in the collections that have yet to go through to an attorney by filing Chapter 13 and that I probably wouldnt have to pay a dime. How does this work ? I dont have any dispsoable income to make payments with so ...... ?? I just dont understand how I can get this out and done with without paying for it over time. Will this make my credit worse than it is after I filed chapter 7 ? I just dont want them to be able to garnish my wages and if I can settle for pennies on the dollar then I will do that rather than paying the whole thing. My credit is bad anyway so what the heck. And yes I DO have the money to pay this off - but I am having to borrow it from my mother which I hate to do (if you knew my mother you would know why) - lol - so if I can help having to borrow the money then I will do the chapter 13 if that will put an end to all of this. All total including the judgment my total bills owing are over 3000.00 if I grab everything - but if this is a repayment plan and I dont have anything to pay it back WITH then what ?

$3,000 is all you owe ??? !!!

Don't file bankruptcy for such a small amount.

You may need to file for bankruptcy at some point in the future for some really big medical bills or some kind of car accident, etc., and if you file now, you will have to wait for a number of years before you can file again in the future.

And besides, you won't qualify for a Chapter 13 Repayment Plan if you don't have sufficient steady income to repay a certain percentage of the debt over a certain amount of time... about 5 years. So your bankruptcy would be dismissed or converted to a Chapter 7.

Since they are unwilling to make a deal with you, you might as well take it all the way to court, file an answer, and contest the fees they tacked on to the total bill. The judge might see it your way and lower the amount owed, but probably not. The court system has been in bed with the collection industry for many, many years. But this way, they will have to earn some of those fees.

But beware that immediately after they win a judgment against you they can seize the money in your checking account/savings account-- so get it out of there. They can also garnish your wages unless you live in Texas or you're unemployed or self-employed. So, if you can afford to pay it off and you want to pay it off to avoid wage garnishment, then be prepared to do so right in front of the judge on the day you appear in court.

[uwishtoo]

$3,000 is all you owe ??? !!!

Don't file bankruptcy for such a small amount.

You may need to file for bankruptcy at some point in the future for some really big medical bills or some kind of car accident, etc., and if you file now, you will have to wait for a number of years before you can file again in the future.

And besides, you won't qualify for a Chapter 13 Repayment Plan if you don't have sufficient steady income to repay a certain percentage of the debt over a certain amount of time... about 5 years. So your bankruptcy would be dismissed or converted to a Chapter 7.

Since they are unwilling to make a deal with you, you might as well take it all the way to court, file an answer, and contest the fees they tacked on to the total bill. The judge might see it your way and lower the amount owed, but probably not. The court system has been in bed with the collection industry for many, many years. But this way, they will have to earn some of those fees.

But beware that immediately after they win a judgment against you they can seize the money in your checking account/savings account-- so get it out of there. They can also garnish your wages unless you live in Texas or you're unemployed or self-employed. So, if you can afford to pay it off and you want to pay it off to avoid wage garnishment, then be prepared to do so right in front of the judge on the day you appear in court.

Oh yeah - I plan to do just that in front of the judge - I figure since they already added the fees and such that I am going to make the lawyer showup and waste his time and then at least I will be able to tell the judge that I TRIED and tried repeatedly to settle this with the debt collections place and they wouldnt take my payments - so I am going to at least have my say - and then I will just pull out 100 dollar bills and say OOPS - here it is ! And I will demand a written agreement of course along with a clause that they immediately take this off my credit report. This debt place is horrible - they are the scum of the earth in town here - and the judge knows it. I am kind of hoping like my laywer told me last nite that the other lawyer might approach me before we go into court and offer a lower settlement which of course I will take and then I will tell him oh by the way - I had the full amount but too late now. So it will never go to a judgement for them to get my bank accounts

[no_it_all]

<big snip>
But beware that immediately after they win a judgment against you they can seize the money in your checking account/savings account-- so get it out of there.

I believe the Plaintiff would have to prevail in court again in order to seize any assets. In some states the judgement creditor has to serve the judgment debtor to attend a court hearing before any collection activity can begin. It is not <immediately> after the judgement is won that that the creditor can collect. The majority of judgements are not collected, most likely because the judgement debtor often ends up going bankrupt.

[uwishtoo]

what now ?

I believe the Plaintiff would have to prevail in court again in order to seize any assets. In some states the judgement creditor has to serve the judgment debtor to attend a court hearing before any collection activity can begin. It is not <immediately> after the judgement is won that that the creditor can collect. The majority of judgements are not collected, most likely because the judgement debtor often ends up going bankrupt.

I had a friend of mine a few years ago that only got served for small claims with a credit card company and before they even went to court they froze her bank accounts! I didnt understand that a bit.

Yeah my only deal is that I already filed ch 7 and had it discharged less than a year ago so if they were to get a judgement I wouldnt be able to pay my mortgage and car payment. I am going to have my day in court just for the heck of it - like I said I figure if I am getting charges for court fees and lawyer fees then the lawyer is going to earn what I am paying for to the collections place. I still think as my own lawyer said that if I let this go to the wire that I might get approached in the hallway to see if we can make a settlement for less, if so, great, if not, then oh well, I will still have my say in court and it wont cost me any more money. Now they are hounding me for 400 bucks that they JUST told me about !!! I told her I didnt KNOW yet - she immediately said oh so you arent willing to pay these either ? Argggh - talk about twisting words - jeez. If my mortgage rates hadnt adjusted by almost 5 percent over the last year I wouldnt be in this mess again it will just be nice to have my credit report cleared finally of all judgments and nothing showing other than the bankruptcy from last year.

[GoingDown]

I believe the Plaintiff would have to prevail in court again in order to seize any assets. In some states the judgement creditor has to serve the judgment debtor to attend a court hearing before any collection activity can begin. It is not <immediately> after the judgement is won that that the creditor can collect. The majority of judgements are not collected, most likely because the judgement debtor often ends up going bankrupt.

It depends upon what your definition of "immediately" is.

One of my uncles owned apartments, and one of his renters moved out and didn't get their cleaning deposit back because they left the apartment filthy. My uncle failed to give them a written notice explaining exactly why they were not getting their deposit back, and so the renter prevailed in small claims court. That very same day the renter's attorney friend garnished my uncle's checking account and drained the whole account. He had $800 in there, but the deposit was only $350. The rest of the money in the account went to pay the renter's attorney, the bank's attorney (for responding to the garnishment action), and bank fees. The checking account started to bounce checks and became overdrawn very quickly, racking up more banking fees.

That seems to fit the definition of immediate to me.

People need to realize that checking accounts are NOT safe places to keep your money when someone files a lawsuit against you.

[uwishtoo]

????

It depends upon what your definition of "immediately" is.

One of my uncles owned apartments, and one of his renters moved out and didn't get their cleaning deposit back because they left the apartment filthy. My uncle failed to give them a written notice explaining exactly why they were not getting their deposit back, and so the renter prevailed in small claims court. That very same day the renter's attorney friend garnished my uncle's checking account and drained the whole account. He had $800 in there, but the deposit was only $350. The rest of the money in the account went to pay the renter's attorney, the bank's attorney (for responding to the garnishment action), and bank fees. The checking account started to bounce checks and became overdrawn very quickly, racking up more banking fees.

That seems to fit the definition of immediate to me.

People need to realize that checking accounts are NOT safe places to keep your money when someone files a lawsuit against you.

Yep, I dont even HAVE a checking account - only a savings - so ... but I do have an out of town account that I keep that would be very hard for anyone to find. I dont have anything in it but ....

That is horrible that the lawyer can do that garbage and rack up your uncle for more fees. Really bad. I know my sister and brother in law own a duplex that they rent and when they evicted the gal for non payment of rent it took almost 6 months to get her out and when they went in to the duplex they found that they had a heck of a moving out party - they found what looked like people had taken soda cans and shaken them up and just sprayed every inch of every wall in the place. Actually took garbage and dumped it all over the carpets and kitchen tiles to where you couldnt see the carpet hardly at all through all the garbage. Took my sis and b in l two full weekends to paint and replace the carpet and tile - and then the gal actually expected her deposit back !

Sue A

[davids]

court hearing

Oh yeah - I plan to do just that in front of the judge - I figure since they already added the fees and such that I am going to make the lawyer showup and waste his time and then at least I will be able to tell the judge that I TRIED and tried repeatedly to settle this with the debt collections place and they wouldnt take my payments - so I am going to at least have my say - and then I will just pull out 100 dollar bills and say OOPS - here it is ! And I will demand a written agreement of course along with a clause that they immediately take this off my credit report. This debt place is horrible - they are the scum of the earth in town here - and the judge knows it. I am kind of hoping like my laywer told me last nite that the other lawyer might approach me before we go into court and offer a lower settlement which of course I will take and then I will tell him oh by the way - I had the full amount but too late now. So it will never go to a judgement for them to get my bank accounts

And I will demand a written agreement of course along with a clause that they immediately take this off my credit report.

you are in no position to demand anything, once it is on your
credit report, it will be for a very long time. as for the $100 court
fee they assesed, more then likely they have already paid this
fee, maybe even more to the court, so weather you show up
to court or not, does not matter, they have paid the fee and
they are passing it to you. the fact is, they are taking you to
court for a judgement, if they win, they will do whatever it takes
to collect, even if it means taking it from your paycheck or bankaccount.

they are the scum of the earth in town here - and the judge knows it.

are you related to the judge, does he personally owe you a favor,
so therefore you assume on what he is going to do...

to be honest, it sounds very much like a judgement is coming
your way, and you are just not willing to face it, the only way
out of this judgement is to pay the FULL amount of what they
want, this is the only way your judgement will be dismissed...

and the judge will not care about your attitude with the creditor
nor will he care about the $100 you are going to gripe about.

You will pay what they want, or you will get a judgement.

[uwishtoo]

And I will demand a written agreement of course along with a clause that they immediately take this off my credit report.

you are in no position to demand anything, once it is on your
credit report, it will be for a very long time. as for the $100 court
fee they assesed, more then likely they have already paid this
fee, maybe even more to the court, so weather you show up
to court or not, does not matter, they have paid the fee and
they are passing it to you. the fact is, they are taking you to
court for a judgement, if they win, they will do whatever it takes
to collect, even if it means taking it from your paycheck or bankaccount.

they are the scum of the earth in town here - and the judge knows it.

are you related to the judge, does he personally owe you a favor,
so therefore you assume on what he is going to do...

to be honest, it sounds very much like a judgement is coming
your way, and you are just not willing to face it, the only way
out of this judgement is to pay the FULL amount of what they
want, this is the only way your judgement will be dismissed...

and the judge will not care about your attitude with the creditor
nor will he care about the $100 you are going to gripe about.

You will pay what they want, or you will get a judgement.

On the contrart, I AM in the position to demand that this gets off my credit report - or at least shows as paid and settled IMMEDIATLY - no waiting for a year like they are know to do or just forgetting to do it and yes, I DO happen t know the judge - thanks very much - have known her since she got out of law school in the mid 70's actually and we used to socialize quite a bit in the same circles. I am paying the judgement - there is no doubt about that - BUT I am going to have my say in court on how they talked to me and such - and dont tell me they can be as rude as they want to, it isnt righgt. There are too many people out there ignoring their obligations totally and I am not one of them - I NEVER once failed to return a call to see if this could be worked out on payments, I never once "refused" to pay anything - I just wasnt able to all in one lump sum. And, yes I am goi ng to argue that since I called THEM a week before they ever turned it over to the attorney racking up 600 - NOT 100 - more than the original debt that I called to settle IN FULL before they ever turned it over to their attorney then I am just going to innocently ask that questin and see what reaction the judge has. Chances are she isnt going to like the fact that I had tried to make this right in full and then THEY wasterd her docket and space and time to take me to court. I guess I will find out Wednesday whether they approach me before court starts to offer me a reduced payments or not - if they do, great, I will pay that - if not then well, will go to court, make them go through it all and then say OOPS- I have it all after all !!!!

[HHM]

I called THEM a week before they ever turned it over to the attorney racking up 600 - NOT 100 - more than the original debt that I called to settle IN FULL before they ever turned it over to their attorney

How do you know they hadn't turned it over, "exactly".

When they "file" the complaint, they incur the filing fee (probably the $100 they are referring too) in addition, the cost of the attorney to draft the complaint.

Also, this can blow-up in your face, any attorney worth 2 cents will be able to "point out" that you had the "ability" pay but "refused too". After all, you said you had the money

I have the money in hand - ready to hand over to them one way or the other.

Too answer your question, it "could" bet more expensive if the Judge, (even though you know them) decides you were just merely obstinate and grants all the attorney fees, moreover, the underlying contract between you and this creditor probably provides that you will pay for any and all collection cost anyway.

[Spartan]

On the contrart, I AM in the position to demand that this gets off my credit report - or at least shows as paid and settled IMMEDIATLY - no waiting for a year like they are know to do or just forgetting to do it and yes, I DO happen t know the judge - thanks very much - have known her since she got out of law school in the mid 70's actually and we used to socialize quite a bit in the same circles. I am paying the judgement - there is no doubt about that - BUT I am going to have my say in court on how they talked to me and such - and dont tell me they can be as rude as they want to, it isnt righgt. There are too many people out there ignoring their obligations totally and I am not one of them - I NEVER once failed to return a call to see if this could be worked out on payments, I never once "refused" to pay anything - I just wasnt able to all in one lump sum. And, yes I am goi ng to argue that since I called THEM a week before they ever turned it over to the attorney racking up 600 - NOT 100 - more than the original debt that I called to settle IN FULL before they ever turned it over to their attorney then I am just going to innocently ask that questin and see what reaction the judge has. Chances are she isnt going to like the fact that I had tried to make this right in full and then THEY wasterd her docket and space and time to take me to court. I guess I will find out Wednesday whether they approach me before court starts to offer me a reduced payments or not - if they do, great, I will pay that - if not then well, will go to court, make them go through it all and then say OOPS- I have it all after all !!!!

We are all on your side and totally sympathize with you.

If you can PROVE that you have made all reasonable effort and in good faith, to make payment, BUT they deliberately screw you over, then you may be able to persuade the judge. Saying you have the money, is probably going to backfire on you. You have to prove that you have done your part to pay up but they deliberately screwed with you. What is in your favour is, you have a track record of cooperating fully.

Arguing that they can't be as rude and it ain't right, is unlikely to cut it in court, unfortunately.

Good luck and I hope you win!

[uwishtoo]

We are all on your side and totally sympathize with you.

If you can PROVE that you have made all reasonable effort and in good faith, to make payment, BUT they deliberately screw you over, then you may be able to persuade the judge. Saying you have the money, is probably going to backfire on you. You have to prove that you have done your part to pay up but they deliberately screwed with you. What is in your favour is, you have a track record of cooperating fully.

Arguing that they can't be as rude and it ain't right, is unlikely to cut it in court, unfortunately.

Good luck and I hope you win!

Thanks, I have never said outright that I have the money or have had it either. I just asked them for an amount and I would try and see what I could do. Since I took an advance on my mothers estate against my inheritance there is absolutely no paper trail of this money being in my possession or when I got it either. As for the other post before this one - here is my reply to that one -

I know exactly the date they turned it over since
# 1 - I have a friend in the collections place as well as one who works for the attorney and I know the date it got to the attorney.

# 2 - I don't have any paper trail of having had the money until just this week - so they have no way of proving that I had the money - I took a loan from my mothers estate as an advancement and it isn't running though my bank - I will have a check in my hand and then cash it before I got to court on Wednesday so they cant prove where cash comes from - since they cant monitor my mothers bank account.

And, no, it won't be more expensive - the most I can get told to pay is what the amount is now - the 1650.00, I checked with several lawyers and they all told me the same thing and the circuit clerk told me that also - why would it be considered obstinate for me to merely make the attorney show up since I am essentially paying for his services anyway. If I pay before court then he wont have to show up and he will get paid anyway - to heck with that ! Plus I have called the attorneys office several times to ask what I had to do BEFORE court and not waste both of our times and the attorneys assistant told me she couldn't discuss it with me and hung up the phone and then the debt collections place tells me to talk to the lawyer - so ... I cant get anyone to talk to me. I have never told them for sure i have any cash - I have told them if they would give me anount I would see what I can do. I am not stupid enough to admit to them ahead of time that I have the cash - let them find out in court - So who's being difficult ? Me or the attorney? If I cant find out a way to send payment in before court then I cant pay it can I ? I can easily prove that the lawyer and the debt collection place have refused to coopoerate with me on not having this end up in court. Like I said, if I am payng for the court fees and lawyer fees anyway no mater what, then I am just having my day in court. Kind of looking forward to it actually - really dont care since as soon as the judgement is placed against me I will pay it - I will try to make payment arrangments first based on my salary the most they can get out of me is 50 bucks a month. So why would I easily turn over money out of pocket that I can spend on fixing my home up with ? They dont know I have it - as far as they are concerned I have to make payments. I dont deny the judgement, just the way they went about collecting it - now they are starting to bug me for the other 400 I have up there that was the tail end of over 240000 of hospital bills and when the gal asked me what I planned on doing about those I said "I dont know yet - I am working on it" and that is when she said "See??? You arent willing to pay anything" and I said no - B**** I didnt say that - I said I am WORKING ON IT !!! Dont put words in my mouth.