Just got served..Should we worry?

[Runnin on empty]

I just had someone (I'm guessing courier) deliver a summons for my wife and I for one of our creditors (a local CU). It's telling me that we have 20 days to respond, in person, at the court about the debt. We will be filing VERY soon. We were supposed to file in early October, but our lawyer went out of the country for the month, and our situation had changed (I quit a different job, drastic income drop).

Should I worry about this? If we file before the 20 days, we should be okay because of the automatic stay, correct?
Our lawyer is local again and I was going to give him a call within the next day or so to see where things were. I just want this nightmare to end so we can get on with our lives and become productive citizens to society again, not the cynical, always looking over our shoulder gargoyles we've been lately.

It's the holiday season, I want to be happy, not morose.

[BassBoy]

I would call your attorney ASAP and let him know about the summons and he may be able to get you filed before the court date. If the filing is going to be delayed until after the summons hearing, the creditor will most likely get a judgement granted and probably start garnishing your wages. That's just one more headache you and your lawyer will have to deal with, so try to get your case filed and stop any actions from the creditor.

[technoreid1]

The same thing has just happened to us! We were getting all our papers ready for a bankruptcy and then we got served a summons (which said to respond with an answer to the court within 30 days BY MAIL).... (if you do not respond you most likely would get a default judgment which would allow the creditor to garnish wages, put liens on property, ect....)

*It is very important to file a response to the summons if you have a defense. (at least it would delay things until your BK is filed) and from what everyone has told me you have your right to a day in court and to put up a defense. You have to be proven guilty. And if you do not respond, they usually find you guilty.

We knew for sure we could not get everything together by the 30 days... + the creditor that is suing us was harrassing us and we have a valid defense...(any defense is valid in my mind)

I contacted my lawyer and asked him if this could effect our BK? and asked if they could start garnishing wages before our BK? (we do not want anything like this to happen) -he said it would take minimum 60 days from the date of us being served the lawsuit before any wage garnishment could start. basically said that if we were to file up to 30 days AFTER the ANSWER was due to the court that we would be ok.....and NOT TO WORRY....another words he said the court system is slow.

Well, my wife and I were highly concerned about this and wanted to file an answer because #1. We felt as if the CC company did not treat us right. #2. I offered payment a long time ago to them and they refused.

*Also this would delay the law suit until our BK was filed.
I asked my attorney "if we do file an answer to the lawsuit could it hurt our BK", and he said no. But you will be wasting your money by filing an answer. He said if we wanted too we could delay the lawsuit by filing an answer and in the meantime file a BK, but it WAS NOT necessary since we would be filing a BK soon.

*these are all opinions and dont take what I say to heart
or as fact or as any legal advice as I am not an attorney....

just trying to help!

I hope i made sense....

thnaks, rp

I just had someone (I'm guessing courier) deliver a summons for my wife and I for one of our creditors (a local CU). It's telling me that we have 20 days to respond, in person, at the court about the debt. We will be filing VERY soon. We were supposed to file in early October, but our lawyer went out of the country for the month, and our situation had changed (I quit a different job, drastic income drop).

Should I worry about this? If we file before the 20 days, we should be okay because of the automatic stay, correct?
Our lawyer is local again and I was going to give him a call within the next day or so to see where things were. I just want this nightmare to end so we can get on with our lives and become productive citizens to society again, not the cynical, always looking over our shoulder gargoyles we've been lately.

It's the holiday season, I want to be happy, not morose.

[zwiepak]

I just had someone (I'm guessing courier) deliver a summons for my wife and I for one of our creditors (a local CU). It's telling me that we have 20 days to respond, in person, at the court about the debt. We will be filing VERY soon. We were supposed to file in early October, but our lawyer went out of the country for the month, and our situation had changed (I quit a different job, drastic income drop).

Should I worry about this? If we file before the 20 days, we should be okay because of the automatic stay, correct?
Our lawyer is local again and I was going to give him a call within the next day or so to see where things were. I just want this nightmare to end so we can get on with our lives and become productive citizens to society again, not the cynical, always looking over our shoulder gargoyles we've been lately.

It's the holiday season, I want to be happy, not morose.

Welp, let me put it this way, as someone else said, I would not let them get a default judgment. I'm sure there's a way to buy yourself some time, I THINK you can pull a motion for "discovery", or even contact the court to see if there's any way to delay. At the very least, show up and don't let them get a default judgment. I don't think I'd lose too much sleep over this, particularly if you are definitley going to file soon. It's kind of like the turtle and hare, you're the hare, just don't sit around and do nothing about it! hit up some credit boards, they've got tons of threads on how to deal with situations as such. Good luck!

[SinkingFast]

Swing by the Court House and chat with a Clerk. Your Court may have a Form you complete or a set Format they want the response written up in.

File your Response by the set date and it should buy you a month or so of time.

Read over what the CU is claiming very carefully.

If the $$$ amount of the debt is wrong compared to your records, you can dispute that. Make them account for the difference.

Make sure they got the acct number right. If not, you can say you never had Acct # so and so with Such and Such CU.

Any minor discrepancy can buy you time.