What to say in court

[merime]

They already have a motion for summary. They sent that last week. Then all the past statements came. I was surprised to see how "good " I was. I always paid more than min and on time. Then stopped. No wonder they are suing me. They probably think i have the money. In my eyes it shows how dramaticallly life changes. I guess I will show up, say as little as I can.

[shark66]

If you have a tendency of "crumbling under pressure" as you've stated in one of the previous posts, my friendly advice would be to stay home.

Nothing you can say there will do you any good. It might just do the opposite.

My $0.02 only...

Best of luck to you - whatever you decide.

[GoingDown]

Well, if you don't go they get a default judgment. THey like that since it is quick and painless for them. You don't go to jail for not showing up. However, when you get all the paperwork through the courthouse wanting a list of your assets, bank accounts and such, I think that blowing them off is where you can go to jail because this will be contempt.

I played the arbitration card and never intend to find this out personally.

Out of curiosity, what do you mean by "I played the arbitration card" and how did that stop the Debtor's Exam?

The only people I have known personally who have ever had a Debtor's Exam were involved in nasty divorces where the ex-spouse knew the person was hiding assets and money. I have never heard of them happening with credit card judgments.

[flyinbroke]

Out of curiosity, what do you mean by "I played the arbitration card" and how did that stop the Debtor's Exam?

The only people I have known personally who have ever had a Debtor's Exam were involved in nasty divorces where the ex-spouse knew the person was hiding assets and money. I have never heard of them happening with credit card judgments.

Hi GD, if you take a gander at the arbitration clause in most credit card agreements, it states that either party can elect arbitration which means it cannot be litigated in a court of law. This is what CC companies used when NAF was part of the arbitration landscape. THey paid 250, and the consumer nearly always lost. THe MN AG revealed that NAF was a scam financed and/or hedged by large collection agencies and CC banks....a consumer stood maybe a one percent chance of winning. If that. They shut down their consumer vs. creditor arbitration.

Today NAF is out of the picture, and AAA and JAMS are not willing to instantly side with the banks for fear of being put out of business. They have also made it nearly impossible for a creditor to initiate arbitration, so you see a ton of lawsuits. The consumer, on the other hand, can initiate if they have claims against the creditor or CA. At the most, it costs 250 for a consumer and about ten times that for the banks to start the process.

If you are sued, arbitration removes it from the court. If you have violations of fed and state laws and you initiate, you can initiate before a suit is filed. You can elect to use arbitration at any time (I like using VoD letters) and they cannot sue or they violate FDCPA (CA) or my state laws.

As for debtor's exams, once they have a judgment, they can levy bank accounts and such...so they can put in for one. I have no intention of ever finding out though, as i researched the daylights out of things and went with arbitration.

As a caveat, you can still lose in arbitration, but you can appeal, and they have to get any judgment confirmed by the courts first. Some don't bother with that.