Question court date for lawsuit in 2 weeks

[4ever]

Our lawyer said not to bother showing up in court. Does that mean he is taking care of it or will the court send someone to arrest me for just not showing up? Capital one filed the lawsuit. I don't know whether to call the courthouse and tell them about not being there or what. I had a friend who's lawyer told her the same thing (different circumstances) and the cops came to her job and had her arrested for not appearing in court. What should I do?

[keepinitreal]

Even though your lawyer is comfortable not doing anything, if it has you stressed out, read the notice you received and write back to the address(es) listed, informing them that you have/will be filing bankruptcy and give your attorney name and contact information. This should make you feel better.

[Pandora]

I'd want to know exactly why your lawyer is stating not to go since you havent filed BK yet. My concern would be that a default judgment would be awarded. While you can file a motion to vacate the judgment once you do file - why go through all the hoops to do so?

I dont know if any judge will accept "my attorney advised me not to" as a procedural defense in order to get a motion to vacate.

[AngelinaCat]

If you have not yet filed BK, you need to show up in court. If you don't, the creditor will get a 'default judgment' against you, and as an earlier poster advised, you have to go through all kinds of legal hoops, and expense, to get the judgment vacated.

If your attorney is planning to file before the two weeks are up, then you are fine, if not find out why.

We had a creditor file a suit against us. We showed up. We were asked if we admitted the debt. We said that we neither admitted OR denied it. The judge then sent us and the creditor's attorney to Arbitration. Arbitration in our cvil court district only happens once a month. The judge set it for that day, which gave us thirty days. However, the date scheduled was a date when we are normally out of town. We spoke up and said so. So the date was changed to the following month. That gave us thirty additional days.

By the time the date for the Arbitration rolled around, we had filed BK, and it all became moot.

[4ever]

Yes, we did file for BK,our court date is Dec 15.

[AngelinaCat]

Yes, we did file for BK,our court date is Dec 15.

Okay, then the attorney was correct. As long as the creditor was included on your mailing matrix, then you don't have to show up. If there are any questions in your mind at all, then mail a copy of your 'Suggestion of Bankruptcy' document to the court, and the attorney for the creditor. And for additional peace of mind, I would send it certified with a return reciept. Keep everything for your files.

The court date of Dec. 15; is that your 341? Or is that for this lawsuit?

[4ever]

Dec 15 is the 341 meeting. We have our case number now too. The lawsuit court date is Nov. 17. I guess I'll trust his judgement and hope for the best. If anything, I can always call him to bail me out if worse comes to worse.

[AngelinaCat]

Do you have a PACER account? You may wish to sign up for it. With PACER you can check and see just what has been filed in your case, as well as the Creitor Mailing Matrix. Just be careful. PACER can be addictive. Here is a link to the latest 'sticky' thread:

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?57204-The-Ultimate-PACER-Guide-amp-Tips

When our case was active, we always clicked the link that showed the newest document. Then we opened that up (a PDF document) and saved it to our hard drive into a Bankruptcy Folder, with a page approrpiate name.

Good luck to you

[4ever]

Thanks. I've seen pacer mentioned alot on here but haven't checked it out yet. Now that we have our case number and the 341 coming up, it will be good to try this out.

[Pandora]

Yes, we did file for BK,our court date is Dec 15.

Sorry - thought in your postings you said you hadnt filed yet and were waiting until mid-November

[dumpinmydebt]

Dec 15 is the 341 meeting. We have our case number now too. The lawsuit court date is Nov. 17. I guess I'll trust his judgement and hope for the best. If anything, I can always call him to bail me out if worse comes to worse.

I would still send my own notice to the court. The court my lawsuit was in was on the Matrix(and is a suburb of the city I filed in so I know they had to have received the notice within 2 days) but after 2 weeks they still never updated their docket of my bankruptcy. So I went to the court and filed my notice of bankruptcy, got my copy time & date stamped, and it was updated immediately.

[4ever]

Sorry - thought in your postings you said you hadnt filed yet and were waiting until mid-November

It took us 3 payments to pay the lawyer. I guess after the first payment we were in the BK proceedings but I really didn't count that as official until after our last payment to him and both of us signing all the paperwork and getting the case number.

[4ever]

I would still send my own notice to the court. The court my lawsuit was in was on the Matrix(and is a suburb of the city I filed in so I know they had to have received the notice within 2 days) but after 2 weeks they still never updated their docket of my bankruptcy. So I went to the court and filed my notice of bankruptcy, got my copy time & date stamped, and it was updated immediately.

This sounds like a good idea. I want to trust the lawyer on this, but come Nov. 17 at 9am,(lawsuit court date) I will be sitting on pins and needles just wanting for something bad to happen!

[dumpinmydebt]

This sounds like a good idea. I want to trust the lawyer on this, but come Nov. 17 at 9am,(lawsuit court date) I will be sitting on pins and needles just wanting for something bad to happen!

That's exactly how I felt. Going there and filing and having the papers stamped was a huge relief. It won't hurt so you might as well.

[jcj112562]

Just take a copy of the filing from the BK court, available from a friendly PACER account near you if you do not already have one, walk to the Clerk of Courts where the lawsuit is filed, file it with the clerk, and voila, no more worry about showing up or not showing up...the lawsuit will magically be stopped/closed, as long as said creditor is on your matrix of creditors. Seems like a really tiny thing to take care of to get piece of mind. I did the above after filing the day before the hearing date...the suit was closed the next day, and since the creditor that was suing me did not bother to file a claim, they got zilch, nstead of the full amount they were suing me for.

John