Sheriff at my relatives house - a little panicked!

[DivorceRuinedMe]

I'm sorry in advance that I don't have time to search the forum for what this means right now. And if this has been asked a zillion times I'm sorry for the repetition but I need some answers ASAP.

The sheriff showed up at my parent's house (where I used to live) and was asking for me. My dad said the sheriff said it was from Citibank. So what exactly does this mean? Are they looking for me to sue me? I can't file till October so I'm kinda stuck till then. I am in the process of getting all my paperwork together for the attorney so that when I can file I do it promptly.

Someone calm me down b/c I'm freaking out right now. What if anything should I do? They will find me eventually b/c I bought a house so I'm traceable there. They can't sue me until they serve me right? That should buy a tad bit of time. Then what's the process? Should I call my atty (who I haven't retained yet but am planning to - I have the money, she just said to wait until I am ready to file to pay)? Is this something she needs to know about?

[BKTango]

They were attempting to serve you. Citibank sued us in like no time after default. They will keep looking for you. Also be aware that some districts allow them to attempt to serve you twice and if they can't can't locate you or give you the papers by the second time, it doesn't matter. You will be notified by the court at that point. NOTE: That happens in some districts, such as ours, not all districts practise this.

After you get served, since you are not filing until October, it will be crucial for you to answer the summons. You will about about 20 days to do so. Go to your local court, ask for the correct forms and file a "presumption of bankruptcy" answer. Basically put in your answer that you are filing bankruptcy. If that doesn't work and they receive a judgement anyway for a lien or garnishment, once you file that will stop. (Make sure you include the judgement in your bk) After your discharge, have the judgment vacated off of your CRA's.

Make sure you file an answer.

[CRRAVOSA]

If you do file an answer make sure that you do not file it right away, try to file it two days before the deadline at this point you want to extend the time as much as possible. BE sure to show up at any court dates, should you not show up that would cause more problems for you, also if you need to extend it ask for continuances where you can. The name of the game is to buy as much time as possible so they are not able to garnish your wages as hopefully bu that time you filed your bankruptcy

[guzzie]

hi and good luck....I got served by LVNV who bought a sears account of mine on may17,2007....attys said I had 20 days to reply....carravosa is right.....we waited until day
19 and my atty filed my bk electronically on june 5....he said the phone got real quiet real quick when he gave them my case # have had no contact from them and no objections yet
thank goodness.....also had a judgement entered in fall 2006 from capital one that the bk stopped....I paid my atty $150.00 extra to have the judgement vacated from the record after the discharge......you will be fine .....good success to you...guzzie

[DivorceRuinedMe]

ARGH - I wasn't stressing until now. I am almost to October. It's like they know that I can't file till October or something.

I am so lost. I don't even know where to go to file the answer as I just moved to a new city. And how will I even know that there is a suit against me if they don't ever serve me? How will I know to file this answer if I don't even know there's a suit pending? I know BKTango said that the court will notify me but how will the court find me? I'm so confused.

I've had a really bad day at work today (not b/c of this) and trying to figure this out on top of it is making me have the biggest headache ever.

Is this something that I should let my lawyer handle or can I handle this myself?

[Lindsay]

Can you retain a lawyer now and tell Citibank that you are filing for bankruptcy shortly? Its only about 6 weeks to October, they'd be wasting their time and legal fees to pursue a lawsuit that is going to get bankrupted anyway. If it were me, I'd probably talk to a lawyer and see if it will be better to retain one now so you'll be able to say "call my lawyer directly."

How many months past due is this bill? I heard that they don't try to sue you until it has been 6 - 18 months average. I'm about 45 days late on our citibank card and we're not planning on filing until October either. It seems like the creditors are getting more aggressive. I wonder with the subprime mortgage crisis if bankruptcy and credit card defaults aren't way up too. The collectors call now if you are only 7 or 8 days late.

[JRScott]

Some good advice in this thread.

I was serverd papers in late March for an old Aspire account. I was able to retain the lawyer within the 30 days I was given to respond even though I didn't file in that time frame.

Didn't hear no more about it .

If you can go ahead and retain a bankruptcy lawyer even if you can't pay them in full. They won't waste money if they know you are bankrupt.

[DivorceRuinedMe]

Well, I called my atty's office this AM and they said that unless I'm filing bankruptcy at the same time I'm filing the answer for "suggestion of bankruptcy", then I can't file that as an answer to this lawsuit.

So, I'm not sure how to stall now. I'm going to research the forum when I get a minute. If anyone has any tips as to how to stall this, please offer them up. My atty said I should talk to the creditor and tell them I'm going to file. I REALLY don't want to talk to them. I wonder if after I pay her if I can just tell them that I'm filing and refer the calls to her office. I'm sure that would be okay with her.

What would you all suggest that I do to buy me some time so that I don't get this judgement???

[SinkingFast]

Are you in the same State as the Court where Citi is filing their Claim?? If not, that could be why your current BK attny is hesitant to write a letter of response on your behalf. Also, BK attnys pretty much only do BK so that may be another reason. Not his/her realm of specialty.

You can stall by filing a Validation Response. It's not so important what you say, as that you file within the prescribed time frame.

You write a letter telling the Court that you Dispute Citi's Claim against you. You want the Creditor to Validate your debt with them and explain how they came up with the $$$ amount claimed. Break down Principal, Interest, Fees, etc.

That'll do the same thing.

Here's a thread for you:

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=15192

Notice in the sample that No_It_All gave, NIA said to find out the Court's required Format. Draft your response in the required Format and file a copy with the Court as well as sending a copy to Citi's attny.

[emoney]

Many people call a say I'm filing BK, so that may not work. A call or letter from your BK attorney will, in most cases, stop them in their tracts.
regards,
emoney

[DivorceRuinedMe]

Are you in the same State as the Court where Citi is filing their Claim?? If not, that could be why your current BK attny is hesitant to write a letter of response on your behalf. Also, BK attnys pretty much only do BK so that may be another reason. Not his/her realm of specialty.

You can stall by filing a Validation Response. It's not so important what you say, as that you file within the prescribed time frame.

You write a letter telling the Court that you Dispute Citi's Claim against you. You want the Creditor to Validate your debt with them and explain how they came up with the $$$ amount claimed. Break down Principal, Interest, Fees, etc.

That'll do the same thing.

Here's a thread for you:

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=15192

Notice in the sample that No_It_All gave, NIA said to find out the Court's required Format. Draft your response in the required Format and file a copy with the Court as well as sending a copy to Citi's attny.

I know this may sound really stupid but, how do I know which courthouse to go to? Will it be the courthouse where my 341 will be or can I do this at any courthouse? I ask b/c the one where my 341 will be is over an hour away from me. There is another courthouse that is much closer but I'm not sure if this is something that that I can do there.

[BurgerKingVII]

I know this may sound really stupid but, how do I know which courthouse to go to?

You'd file such a document with the court where Citibank filed the lawsuit. In my experience, when CC creditors sue on a debt, they tend to do so in state court; specifically, the county where the debtor lives. This is true even when the creditor is a megabank like Citi; they've got attorneys all over the country to file collection lawsuits.

You said you haven't been served yet. In most cases, I don't think it's a good idea to duck service, because if the process server can't find you after making a reasonable effort, they can typically "serve" you by publication; i.e., by printing something in the "Legal Notices" section of the newspaper, which nobody reads. And that usually leads to a default judgment. My general philosophy is that if someone has sued you, it's best to know exactly what's going on so you can make the best response possible.

Also, if you're not filing BK until October, there's a pretty good chance that they'll find you between now and then.

If you do get served with the summons and complaint, there should be a "caption" at the top of each document that indicates where Citibank filed the lawsuit. The form varies from state to state, but where I live, they start out with something like this:

IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF JEFFERSON
FOR THE COUNTY OF ADAMS

which is a verbose way of saying, "This case is in Adams County Superior Court."

I'd suggest talking with your lawyer (or another one, if your BK attorney isn't being too helpful here) about how to proceed with this. While I usually recommend not trying to avoid the process server, your specific circumstances (especially your intent to file BK) may warrant a different approach.

[SinkingFast]

Your 341 Meeting is gonna be in the Federal Court House in your area.

As BKVII said,...... The Court House you'd go to for this particular situation is your local County Court House.

Some States require that the Plaintiff publish a public notice if the process server cannot property serve the defendant. Not necessarily the case in all States, tho. You'd have to check the laws for your particular State to know what to expect.

Could be, once the Creditor has made several (2-3) good faith attempts to serve you, the Creditor would be allowed to proceed in Court. Thereby winning a default Judgement against you.

Call or swing by the County Court House. Explain to the Clerks what's going on. They can probably tell you what you need to do.

[BurgerKingVII]

You can stall by filing a Validation Response. It's not so important what you say, as that you file within the prescribed time frame.

You write a letter telling the Court that you Dispute Citi's Claim against you. You want the Creditor to Validate your debt with them and explain how they came up with the $$$ amount claimed. Break down Principal, Interest, Fees, etc.

That'll do the same thing.

Here's a thread for you:

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=15192

A few cautions here....

1) Often you don't want to write a letter to the court, for two reasons. The first is that in many places, court rules forbid litigants (or their lawyers) from writing letters to the court regarding a pending matter. And even if there is no such rule, many judges really dislike such letters. (Conversely, there are some judges who actually ask that some matters be brought to their attention via letter, but this seems to be the exception rather than the rule.)

The second is that if you do write a letter to the court and don't send a copy to the other side's attorney, you've engaged in "ex parte" communication with the court. This is usually a no-no.

In short, if you've been served with a complaint, the proper response is usually filing either an answer or a pre-answer motion to dismiss.

2) no it all's answer ends with what appear to be "boilerplate" affirmative defenses. I say this for three reasons:

a) Each one is qualified with, "To the extent that...."

b) The first affirmative defense -- lack of personal jurisdiction -- is probably without any merit whatsoever if you've been sued in the state where you live and have been properly served.

c) In another thread, no it all described his answer as "a beautiful piece of fiction" that "worked."

This approach to pleading could be dangerous. In some places (including where I live), courts tend to tolerate boilerplate answers. But in others, you could run afoul of court rules that, in a nutshell, require that your pleading be done in good faith, with a legitimate basis for everything you assert.

Don't get me wrong -- if you've got a legitimate defense or basis for denying something, include it. For example, if they ask for a certain amount without a breakdown into principal, interest, fees, etc., and you can't figure out how they arrived at that amount, you can probably deny that allegation on the basis that you lack sufficient knowledge or information.

Also, if the creditor's complaint is somehow deficient, by all means point this out. For example, in the state where I used to live, court rules required any complaint based upon a written document to have a copy of that document attached to the complaint. Creditors would often just attach a printout of the current account status, which I believe is not sufficient.

One other strategy would be to file a motion for an extension of time to answer the complaint, assuming that you've got a good-faith basis for doing so. (Needing more time to hire a lawyer would be an example.) In fact, I used to live in a county where the local court rules allowed you to get an automatic 30-day extension of time to answer without any reason whatsoever.

[DivorceRuinedMe]

One other strategy would be to file a motion for an extension of time to answer the complaint, assuming that you've got a good-faith basis for doing so. (Needing more time to hire a lawyer would be an example.) In fact, I used to live in a county where the local court rules allowed you to get an automatic 30-day extension of time to answer without any reason whatsoever.

How would I find out if I can do this? Call the county courthouse and ask them what types of circumstances would warrant an extension? I just need to buy some time, just a little bit.

Do you all recommend that I talk to Citibank and let them know that I'm filing for bankruptcy and see what happens? I know all advice is NOT to tell your creditors but in this situation would it be prudent, just for this particular creditor? Worst case scenario is that they speed things up. Best case is they slow things or halt things based on me telling them I'm filing in October. It's really not THAT far off and for them to waste money doing all this just to have me file seems silly for them. I know that they hear it every day that people *will* be filing though so I'm not sure what to do.

I do know that I'm getting my money and paperwork together and sending the lawyer a money order this week. That way when I talk to Citibank I can say, I have retained an attorney, here is her number. Please call her if you have any further questions about my bankrutpcy. Do you think that's a better approach in dealing with this instead of talking with them on the phone???