I have a pre-trial hearing with creditors lawyers this week....advice?

[justbroke]

I agree with the general sentiment, on here, that due diligence is required. My point was merely, what do you want to see at the end, and do you realize the potential outcome. If a collection agency sent me 6 months of statements from the original creditor, then that is pretty much a good indication that they own the account. (This is exactly the evidence they present in the bankruptcy court to establish that they own the account!)

signal, I know how you feel about this, and trust me... I feel the same. I just don't want to see you stuck with a judgment and then a levy action against any property or accounts. I feel this way because you are sure that you won't use the BK "Ace" card for what little debt that you do have. This could put you in a bad position unless you are either in Texas, or you are un-collectable (collection-proof).

(The fact that AA has initiated a lawsuit tells me that they believe you have assets!)

[GoingDown]

Didn't you say you worked in construction? A judgment from a consumer debt shouldn't have affected your employment prospects one way or another. I worked in HVAC, and a lot of the people I worked with were ex-cons who had served lengthy prison sentences for armed robbery, selling drugs, and other serious offenses. I very seriously doubt that an employer would care about a civil judgment in that industry, and to the best of my knowledge, no company that I ever applied for did a credit check, but all of them did a driving record check, criminal/background check, and pre-employment drug testing. I certainly was never asked about civil judgments on any job application, nor at any interview, and I interviewed at many companies (a lot of which I decided not to work for, based on what I learned at the interview).

In any case, once you file for BK, the judgment should be marked as "satisfied" or deleted from your credit reports, depending on your state's laws. According to the attorney here at the U of A, once I file, the judgment will be marked as "resolved through bankruptcy" and $0 balance owing. I am planning to file on Friday morning, so we shall see.

But see, those were the kinds of jobs I was stuck with because they did not check my credit report. And I had to eventually become self-employed to avoid things like wage garnishment. I doubt the OP really wants to do construction jobs for a living.

In the early years of my journey through all of this, I did apply for a few ordinary jobs, and they did pull my credit report as part of the job application process, and they even specifically told me they were turning down my application for employment based upon what they had seen in my credit report. And my judgment always appeared at the very top of credit report. Not a good thing to see.

And the OP has already stated that they are not going to be filing bk over such a small amount of money.