California summons question.
On June 14, 2011 a process server came to my door and presented me with my first summons. Now that I have my summons, I have 1 question. You can skip reading the next paragraph if you are not interested in reading the background of my situation, yet I just wanted to get 1 simple question answered by those that are familiar with the basic or California summons process.
My Background Information:
I live in Los Angeles, California. Last year, since I was self employed, my business failed (being self employed, I was not entitled to any unemployment insurance). With the recession, I have not been able to find any work, even until this day. I paid my bills and mortgage with what little money I had saved, but by spring of last year, I was not able to keep up on most of my credit card bills. Then by mid summer, I fell behind in my mortgage. Since last June and the first of June this year, I have received TONS of collection calls and letters from the credit card companies and 2nd and 3rd party collection companies. In October last year, my house went into foreclosure. Then by April this year, my family was able to help me financially to save my house from foreclosure, and my mortgage is back on track. Yet since I owe at least $100K in credit card debt between 10 to 12 credit card issuers, from reading these forums, I knew that it would be just a matter of time before I would get sued. I am not sure who the original credit issuer is regarding my summons, but I think it originally is my Sear CitiBank Gold MasterCard, with a $14K balance. I am not sure if my getting out of foreclosure triggered the summons or if the collector finally got around to me after 1 year, but I have 1 question about my first summons.
1. At the top of the summons (filed at my city courthouse on June 10, 2011), it states:
“You have been sued. The court may decide against you without you being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below. You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case . . . etc. etc. etc.”.
Since I never received a summons before, I thought it would have a court date and time for me to appear in court for my case to be heard. Yet I was surprised that 3 calendar days went by before I was served. Since I still have no job and my family is helping me keep my house, I still have no money to deal with this summons issue. Ideally, I would just like to be totally honest and say, that I am aware that this 14K credit card debt is mine, but since I am unemployed, I have no current way to pay this debt at this time, but I would be happy to workout a payment plan once I am employed.
What would you suggest is the best way to handle this? Based on some of my past readings of people that are in similar situations, they either file BK or don’t go to court at all and let it be a default judgment. Yet getting a default judgment can take many turns . . . i.e. putting a lien on a persons house or wage garnishment or bank account seizure or forced sale of assets.
So any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
My Background Information:
I live in Los Angeles, California. Last year, since I was self employed, my business failed (being self employed, I was not entitled to any unemployment insurance). With the recession, I have not been able to find any work, even until this day. I paid my bills and mortgage with what little money I had saved, but by spring of last year, I was not able to keep up on most of my credit card bills. Then by mid summer, I fell behind in my mortgage. Since last June and the first of June this year, I have received TONS of collection calls and letters from the credit card companies and 2nd and 3rd party collection companies. In October last year, my house went into foreclosure. Then by April this year, my family was able to help me financially to save my house from foreclosure, and my mortgage is back on track. Yet since I owe at least $100K in credit card debt between 10 to 12 credit card issuers, from reading these forums, I knew that it would be just a matter of time before I would get sued. I am not sure who the original credit issuer is regarding my summons, but I think it originally is my Sear CitiBank Gold MasterCard, with a $14K balance. I am not sure if my getting out of foreclosure triggered the summons or if the collector finally got around to me after 1 year, but I have 1 question about my first summons.
1. At the top of the summons (filed at my city courthouse on June 10, 2011), it states:
“You have been sued. The court may decide against you without you being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below. You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case . . . etc. etc. etc.”.
Since I never received a summons before, I thought it would have a court date and time for me to appear in court for my case to be heard. Yet I was surprised that 3 calendar days went by before I was served. Since I still have no job and my family is helping me keep my house, I still have no money to deal with this summons issue. Ideally, I would just like to be totally honest and say, that I am aware that this 14K credit card debt is mine, but since I am unemployed, I have no current way to pay this debt at this time, but I would be happy to workout a payment plan once I am employed.
What would you suggest is the best way to handle this? Based on some of my past readings of people that are in similar situations, they either file BK or don’t go to court at all and let it be a default judgment. Yet getting a default judgment can take many turns . . . i.e. putting a lien on a persons house or wage garnishment or bank account seizure or forced sale of assets.
So any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Comment