Chapter 13

[Brokegirl]

Hi! My husband and I are preparing to file Chapter 13. I have been getting everything together the past few weeks. We are taking it to attorney’s office tomorrow. Hope I haven’t forgotten anything! We are being sued by a creditor . It is in pending status since April 21. We have not been served yet. I know it takes a few weeks for attorney to file after getting information. I hope we prevent a judgement by getting it filed in time! Looking forward to reading all of the information here!

[bornfree2]

You havent been served? You have time then and its good you are getting ahead of it.
Assuming you were served you usually have 20-30 days to respond depending on state rules.
If you are served be sure to have your bankruptcy filing communicated to both the court and collector. Dont assume one court knows what the other is doing.

You definitely want to avoid a default judgement. But as you have an attorney they should handle contacting the other creditor and court with notice.

Remember the automatic stay only happens when you actually file.

[Brokegirl]

No. We haven’t been served yet. I’m surprised they haven’t yet. Taking papers in today. I hope they are able to file for us quickly!! Thanks for the information! This is very stressful!!

[bornfree2]

No. We haven’t been served yet. I’m surprised they haven’t yet. Taking papers in today. I hope they are able to file for us quickly!! Thanks for the information! This is very stressful!!

It seems the pattern is once someone defaults on paying, it takes about 3 months to 6 months for it to be charged off. Then the collection process can begin. But the actual debt is auctioned/sold off. So different collectors can collect. But these debt rights become new things that themselves can be traded to other collectors. Basically that all buys time for the consumer who stopped paying and is expecting to be sued at any time.

Being sued and being served are two events. The first the debt collector has to decided if its worth filing. This is actually easy for them since its pretty much automated since electronic filing is becoming the defacto standard. Then being served is making the physical effort of landing some papers on you -- something you can be, shall we say, inconvenient about. This too can 'buy you time'.

In short, you got time and can think about letting go of that worry about the collector getting a judgement. There is a quite a large lapse of time and sequence of events that have had to have happened.

And yeah its very stressful. Thats part of the process. Like a trial by fire. Good news is if you have a good lawyer and educate yourself about it, you will come through it untouched and 'rebooted'.

If you want an education about it on your own reading time, i highly suggest the resource i linked in this thread. Its a pro bono manual and covers chapter 13 from soup to nuts. Something that can help with asking the right questions and knowing your rights when talking with your attorney.

[Brokegirl]

Thanks so much! I have a lot to learn! Will read the link you mentioned! Glad to know I have some time before the judgement word!!

[Carmella]

It sounds like you are on the right track Brokegirl We were sued by more than 1 creditor. Once you are served, at least in my state, you have 30 days to reply and the attorney had us reply literally on day 30, it was local so it was easy enough to drop off the reply in person. Then a court date is set and when you go the creditor tries to get an idea if you are going to pay, if they can settle/make payment plan etc. They let us extend the date and set another court date.

In our case we really procrastinated which I DO NOT recommend at all and that is why we went to court more than once. The lawyers for the creditors were really nice which surprised us.

Long story short I feel confident saying that you have time to file and not worry about being served. And even if this attorney you meet with isn't the right one for you, you still have time. If you get bad vibes from the attorney see another. The first one we saw looking out for himself ($) not us!

Welcome and you will find a lot of info here!

[Brokegirl]

Thanks again! I think our state you have 23 days to answer after being served if by mail. Otherwise it’s 20 days. Checking everyday and the file is still in pending state. Still waiting on summons. Attorney has all papers except a boat and trailer we have to register. And have to pay filing fee when we get paid Wednesday. They are supposed to let me know if they need anything else