How Long???

[doc10house]

We've paid the filing fee and paid our attorney in full. We've completed the online credit counseling course and gotten our certificates. Short of turning in the papers and signing forms, we're ready to file our 7 in Indiana.

My question is this: how long do I have? My wife just got a decent job (not one that pays well enough to push us into 13) and can't realy take a weekday off before Christmas, so I'm contemplating waiting until the week before Christmas and New Year's before filing. But we've already gotten a couple of notices re. legal action from a couple creditors. No court dates set, but legal notices nonetheless.

How long do I have before they file a judgment? How long before they dig into my checking account? IS a week and a half going to make a difference?

[poorme]

One can never be sure what the creditor will do - but (and this is a chancy 'but') you might be able to stall for enough time to get to that day off. You don't indicate what the creditors letters indicate - are they initial "pay - or we may take action" or has this gone to 2nd or 3rd demand? You might WRITE them to dispute or ask for clarification, etc. in order to gain some time...it never looks good in court if they appear to ignore your requests for validation before proceeding...but make sure you know how urgent THEIR situation is in order to best plan your defense. At any rate, FILE as quickly as you can. And, if the creditor is hot and actively moving towards legal action, I might even call/fax them a copy of the stay order just to make sure it doesn't get entered in local court. Good Luck - the automatic stay is a wonderful thing!!!

[GoingDown]

You have nothing to worry about. You have plenty of time to file before they get a judgment against you. They can't garnish your wages, nor seize your checking account until they get a judgment against you.

And first they would send out a process server to your home to deliver official documents from the court (called a complaint and summons). Then you typically have 20 days to file an "Answer" to the complaint with the court. After that you may have as long as 3 months before they can even have a hearing in court.

So, you have plenty of time to file BK before they get a judgment against you.

It's a very slow, long, drawn out process, and it costs the creditors money, so most of the time they just try to scare you into paying by threatening to file a lawsuit against you.

It's been my experience that most creditors will wait at least a year after you stop making payments to them before they will even start the lawsuit filing process, and some wait to file until just before the Statute of Limitations runs out for your local area-- depends on where you live-- 3 or 4 years, sometimes even longer than that. And some will never file a lawsuit against you at all. It just depends on the creditor and your financial status.

So, go have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year celebration, and don't worry about this until after the holidays are over, at least. Then if you're ready to file, file bk at that time.