Tell your creditors your filing, will it stop Judgements?

[Mark80]

Does telling your creditors that you are in process of bankruptcy and giving them your Attorneys info help dodge Judgements? I know there is no hard rule to this, but I am trying to buy as much time as I can before filing. I was hoping that if they put in their record that I am infact filing, even before a case number that they may not waste their time and money trying to sue me?

Thanks!

[kornellred]

When you tell your creditors that you are filing, they will ask you for your attorney's phone number and your case number. There is no point in initiating a lawsuit if you are in fact going to file. But just telling them that you intend to file without actually having initiated the process might not stop them from taking legal action.
In any case, filing for BK will stay any money judgments already in effect.

[epiphany]

I found this very effective. I would give them my attorney's name and number and never heard from most of them again. I had no case number.

ep

[AngelinaCat]

Kornellred is correct. If you have an attorney's contact info on hand that you can give the callers, it MAY slow them down to a degree. It would be better to have a case number in hand.

I know your situation from other posts. If you have not yet been served with papers--do not worry just yet. The process STARTS with you being served with papers stating that a lawsuit is being filed against you. You may be served by a Process Server, or--more likely--you will be served by U.S. Mail.

Once you are served, you then have 20 days to respond to the Summons--that's what the document is called. You make a response. You may or may not make a response that the other side has to consider. In ANY case you go to court and respond. The judge asks do you owe the debt? Yes, no--whichever is appropriate.

You are then assigned to Arbitration. Arbitraion in our District only takes place once a month. So THAT gives you time. If, as what happened to us, you are unavoidabley out of town, or concerned with the new baby, SAY so. Arbitration will be delayed until you are back in town. The same advice applies if the original court date is inconvenient.

By then you should be safely filed.

Hey Papa, how are you and the Moma to be, doing?

[epiphany]

Kornellred is correct. If you have an attorney's contact info on hand that you can give the callers, it MAY slow them down to a degree. It would be better to have a case number in hand.

I know your situation from other posts. If you have not yet been served with papers--do not worry just yet. The process STARTS with you being served with papers stating that a lawsuit is being filed against you. You may be served by a Process Server, or--more likely--you will be served by U.S. Mail.

Once you are served, you then have 20 days to respond to the Summons--that's what the document is called. You make a response. You may or may not make a response that the other side has to consider. In ANY case you go to court and respond. The judge asks do you owe the debt? Yes, no--whichever is appropriate.

You are then assigned to Arbitration. Arbitraion in our District only takes place once a month. So THAT gives you time. If, as what happened to us, you are unavoidabley out of town, or concerned with the new baby, SAY so. Arbitration will be delayed until you are back in town. The same advice applies if the original court date is inconvenient.

By then you should be safely filed.

Procedure may vary from district to district but I had 30 days to respond. This did not require going to court at that stage of the game. It required a written response (on the proper form) to be filed with the court. Had I chosen to respond, a court date would have been set only after the response had been entertained by the court.

ep

[JRScott]

If you have already retained the lawyer then yes it can help.

If you haven't then it will not help to say you are filing bankruptcy.

[Mark80]

Well I paid 400 of the total filing fee. I am guessing this would be considered the retainer fee? On the other hand I guess it isn't "fully retained"... which is what I have been asked on several calls. I just say yes and give them the information.

[bk4sky]

as a collector...when they would give me their lawyers name and number i would call the lawyer and get the case number or the lawyer would advise me that yes they have retained them but no case number yet....either way we didnt collect on that person again.

if the person just stated they were going to file bankruptcy but had no lawyer info, that will not stop the calls

[Mark80]

Did you work for a large or small company? Just wondering if that has any bearing on how its handled. I have gotten a ton of interesting calls so far, its actually starting to become amusing as some of their responses.