Timing of Filing and Being Sued--FEAR

[Fresh]

I am relatively new here, but I realized something from reading a lot of helpful threads. Thanks to everyone for the information and the kindness so many of you have provided.

What I realized is that for many of you, you have been able to plan out or time your bankruptcy to optimize your real conditions. With my own situation, what I realized is that if it were possible for me to delay my Ch.7 until November or December, I would basically be able to have a pretty simple case in terms of the means test because I would meet the median income requirement. I've got no assets, just credit card debt of about 100k.

In the next month, I believe that I will have to let all the minimums go for the cards. I'm just paying those for 2 of the 4 active cards. I'm an unemployed temp and I think that any job I can get in the coming months will be substantially less than what I've made.

My biggest fear is being sued. Would some of you tell me what your experience has been in terms of being sued? How long does it generally take?

My largest balances are with Bank of America and American Express with roughly 20k each.

Thank you!

[fltoo]

You are not employed, so there is no wage to levy. Close all your bank accounts and pay all bills with money orders. They are free at Amscot.

Although there are some that tell you getting sued is the worst thing in the world, honestly, it is no big deal.

If a lender gets a judgment against you, there is nothing they can do to you until you start working again, but, they need to get the judgment first and then garnish your wages which will take time.

When a creditor calls you, always tell them you are unemployed and can't pay and then hang up. This might stop them from trying to get a judgment.

BOA and AmX don't historically go for the judgment, but not saying they won't. Chase loves to sue. I had a Chase judgment for one year before I filed.

When you file, the judgment will be vacated, so have no fear and plan your BK according to your needs without worrying about a judgment.

[ItCudHapen2U]

In our case, we stopped paying and were wanting to file within 6 months. But, a local community bank who we had a $3,000.00 VISA card with, decided to file judgement on day 90. So, we get notice of the suit and it was 25 days from that day. So after talking to our retained attorney and the fine folks on this board, we went to court on the appropriate day and asked the judge for a continuance. It was granted, and was scheduled for 45 days later. We filed on day 41 of the 45 day period. We actually wanted to avoid a judgement in the hopes that it will let us rebuild faster. We had our 341 on 3/26/09 and went smooth as silk with no creditors showing up. If we had to do it all over again, we would have preferred to hold off for a few more months. We would have paid the local card the minimum up until 90 days before filing. But hind site is 20/20. None of the national creditors, the Citi's, USBanks, etc, never done more than ring the phone off the hook. It was up to 7 months on most of those accounts by the time we filed. I wish you well. Plan, plan, plan. Our attorney said we should be smooth sailing through the chapter 7 just because we had excellent documentation, provided things on a timely basis, and planned for a good 6-7 months before we even stopped paying our creditors. Nothing wrong with trying to get the biggest bang for your buck if you have to pull the trigger on BK.

[Fresh]

Thanks for these words. Do you remember how long it took Chase to initiate the suit against you? Chase seems to be very aggressive as you said because I think it was about a week after I didn't make a payment that they started ringing the phone. No messages, just I guess an autodialer of sorts. I only know because of my Caller ID.

With the bank account, I am in the process of switching over to a bank which is not affiliated with any cards I have. If it gets to that point, the money orders are a great idea.

Thanks again.

[Fresh]

FLtoo: I forgot to thank you for your comment about telling a creditor about being unemployed. I would hope that would stem a potential lawsuit. The other thing is that in the scheme of things in terms of the numbers of people having problems with the economy, I would think it would take additional time. I'm hoping that's the case.

ITCUD

Wow, that's incredible. Just a local community bank where you had a card. I appreciate you posting what you did. And, yes, my goal is to just be a simple case and to start fresh as the name implies.

[willbfree]

From experience I can say we have now missed four payments with Chase and no legal action has been taken. Chase was given our atty's contact info last week and are still calling wanting to work something out. Chase keeps saying we are long term clients and we should be able to come to terms that are satisfactory to both. I will be glad when this whole process is over.

[catleg]

I think that if you don't own a house it's unlikely that you will be sued.

Reason I say that is, my wife and I have quite a variety of credit card debt which is about 4-5 months past due, and the only one who has threatened to sue us so far is Chase. They have only threatened my wife, because the house is in her name. I have four cards with Chase with the same delinquency and haven't gotten the threat to sue from their in house legal group yet. Also, the only cards we've gotten the threat to sue on have been under 15k, because here in NJ they can sue in "special civil part" for under 15k which costs them a lot less (filing fee around $30 vs $300). Chase actually does sue here, and in both regular civil court and special civil. I've checked the civil motions calendar. But the cases in regular civil take about a year longer than special civil part.

Also, for what it's worth, Chase's letter lists the names of their in house lawyers and their states. They have names for the following states: California, Illinois, New York, Florida, and New Jersey. Not sure what that means for those of you in other places. :-)
I believe Virginia is considered an easy-to-sue state, however.

Just one opinion and data point for you, hope it helps.

[Fresh]

Willbe and Catleg,

You both helped a lot. I appreciate your comments. I do not own a house.

Thanks again

[pookieny]

Capitol One sues about a year after defaulting on your payments.

[pookieny]

I think you're are not judgement free from cc lawsuits if you have a bank account, job, or own a home. However, there are some states where they can't garnish for cc judgements, N & S Carolina, PA, Tx, don't remember the others.

[EricaCallaha]

We had 3 separate Chase accounts and checking and savings with them. We didn't pay any of the cards for 6 months and we hadn't even been charged off yet. When we filed our 13 they took the attorney information and never called back. In checking our claims in the bankruptcy...Chase has only filed for 1 out of the three and for the smallest one ($165). Go figure.

Good luck and start planning now.

[debtmonster]

I think that if you don't own a house it's unlikely that you will be sued.

Not true. I own a home and have over 60 people that are coming after me for money and the only time since 1992 that I ever got sued was for foreclosing the house. Capital One, Chase, HSBC... all of the famous ones and nobody has ever knocked on my door to serve me in all this time.

I don't think owning a home or not has anything to do with it. They must have some kind of formula to know whether or not you're worth going after.

[Floridagail]

I was sued by capone after about 18mos, ( I do not own a home) I owed 7000. I had 5 other ccs with higher balances. They never sued, I stopped paying for 27 mos before filing. I can say my friend was sued by capone for 2000 balance after 18mos, she went to court to try to make aggmts , they would not work with her. after getting judgement in aug against her they still have not garnished her wages. So she has not filed bkruptcy. They are sending her letters now wanting payments, she said forget it. If you pay it will be tax 1099 now. So she just stopped direct deposits and chgd banks. A judgement is no big deal, don't worry. bkrupty will take care of it. You are not alone, I worried about 341 meeting and it was over so fast no big deal. good luck

[debtmonster]

A judgement is no big deal, don't worry. bkrupty will take care of it. You are not alone, I worried about 341 meeting and it was over so fast no big deal. good luck

That's the kind of info we all need to hear!

[liz417]

I stopped paying my CCs in May '08 (Chase is the largest owed @ over 25k alone) and still haven't been sued....knocking on wood as I write this... As everyone has stated, it all really depends on your creditor.

P.S. I'm a homeowner too.