Ok, say I get a summons from a collections law firm

[Bell30656]

Filing an answer will buy you time. Does your state charge for filing an answer? The worst thing you can do is just ignore it and allow them to get a judgement. Contrary to what an earlier poster stated filing an answer does not constitute fraud. You can file an answer denying any and all of the accusations and then it is up to the plaintiff to prove their case. *TIP* File your answer at the courthouse and mail it on the very last day of the answer period. The date that matters is the one stamped by the clerk of court.

After you answer, you can next expect interrogatories from the plaintiff. This will be a list of questions which you have to answer within a certain period. In my state it is 30 days. You can also send them a list of interrogatories. However, they are going to object to all your interrogatories and provide with basically no real answers. Which is what you will do as well.

In my personal experience I was served with three lawsuits: served Nov 2007, Feb 2008 and Oct 2009. When I filed in Dec 2009 none of them had made it to court! As I stated my state does not charge to file an answer. I had zero judgements when I filed my bankruptcy which saved me money with the attorney.

Will your bankruptcy appear in your local paper? Not likely. Where is the court located that you have to file in? Is it the same place that you live? In my case I had to file in Athens, GA but I live in Monroe, GA. If it was published any where it must have been Athens because it sure wasn't in this sleepy little town. I read the paper twice a week (only days it is published).

[catleg]

Filing an answer will buy you time. Does your state charge for filing an answer? The worst thing you can do is just ignore it and allow them to get a judgement. Contrary to what an earlier poster stated filing an answer does not constitute fraud. You can file an answer denying any and all of the accusations and then it is up to the plaintiff to prove their case. *TIP* File your answer at the courthouse and mail it on the very last day of the answer period. The date that matters is the one stamped by the clerk of court.

After you answer, you can next expect interrogatories from the plaintiff. This will be a list of questions which you have to answer within a certain period. In my state it is 30 days. You can also send them a list of interrogatories. However, they are going to object to all your interrogatories and provide with basically no real answers. Which is what you will do as well.

In my personal experience I was served with three lawsuits: served Nov 2007, Feb 2008 and Oct 2009. When I filed in Dec 2009 none of them had made it to court! As I stated my state does not charge to file an answer. I had zero judgements when I filed my bankruptcy which saved me money with the attorney.

Will your bankruptcy appear in your local paper? Not likely. Where is the court located that you have to file in? Is it the same place that you live? In my case I had to file in Athens, GA but I live in Monroe, GA. If it was published any where it must have been Athens because it sure wasn't in this sleepy little town. I read the paper twice a week (only days it is published).

Did you not face any summary judgment motions from the plaintiffs in your cases? How did you defend against them?

[All Cash]

Then don't file. If your really collection proof. So what if they get a judgment.

[Bell30656]

Two attempts at a summary judgement in one lawsuit. The first time they attempted to get a summary judgement saying that I did not answer the interrogatories within the time frame thus admitted each allegation. I had properly "filed" the answer with the court within the time frame. Summary Judgement motion dismissed at a motion hearing. Which was fun. The lawyer was a local lawyer that knew nothing about the case. He had been retained the day before and only had a simple fax about the case.

Second attempt was the same case. They asked for a summary judgement because I refused to attend arbitration. They didn't even bother to show up for that motion hearing. It was over in 15 minutes. I was the third case called and the other party wasn't present so it was over.

In the second suit a summary judgement was never requested. The third wasn't active long enough due to my filing bankruptcy.

[optimistic1]

Your credit is already trashed if you have open collections, often times you will file a bankruptcy and your debt/income ration dissappears and your score will go up. Yeah, they will charge you more in interest, but a bk showing on your credit report is not the end of the world. I bought a house, car, and got new credit cards with a BK showing on my credit report, with no questions asked. Yeah times are different, but capitalism still lives on, this whole thing is gonna go away soon.

Calm down, go file your bk and be done with this cat and mouse crap, they will sue, win, and garnish you legitimately opened the account and charged stuff.