civil suit help me please

i have a question my bank is taking me to court for 674.00 of over draft fees that was added to my savings account when i closed my checking account due to pay day loans. my bank reopened my checking account after i closed it because ach's were coming thru from payday lenders. what will happen when i go to court. has anyone ever dealt with that. i am very nervous and scared. i paid the bank 100 but i will not be able to come up with the other 5 by court date.

Hi Ashley-So you have an account right now with the bank that is taking you to court for the fees? You have been given a summons and a court date?

I am not sure of this, but they will get a judgment against you and that will stay on your credit record for a number of years and public record permenantly. Then all you have to do is pay them unless they garnish your wages. See if you can set up payment arrangements with them before the court date. Then when the account is paid in full along with court filing fees then they will send you a letter in the mail and you will have to bring that down to the courthouse and pay a fee to have it reported as a paid judgment on your credit report.

I know that there are others that can help you out more. When my utilities took me to court that is how it got settled. I made payment arrangements and had to stick to them or they could garnish my wages. And I had to pay their court fees. It is now off my credit record but I just looked it up on my states court website and there are 2 listed (one is over 11 years ago) and that is public record.

Good luck and I hope you can settle this out of court.

yes i had a savings account with them, but they closed it. i called to make payment arrangements and he told me that i would have to pay in full by the 27th thats my court date. i dont have the money to pay in full. on the summoms it said that i didnt have to appear in court, do u think i should go or not. this is the first time i have dealt with something like this.

If you don't appear they will put a judgment against you. Which they probably will anyway. But if it were me I would show up. Then you can tell them that you tried to make arrangements and they refused. I know they don't have to make arrangements but at least you can prove that you were trying and not just ignoring the bank.

not trying to sound stupid but what is a judgement and how long does it stay on your credit report.

A judgement is when someone sues you and they win an amount of money. And that shows up on your credit report (brain fart) I can't remember how it is stated on your report. And as long as you still owe it , it will show that on your report and when you pay it in full it will say that it has been paid. It can stay on your report for 7 years. I can't remember if it can stay on there as long as 10 years. Cajunbulldog would be a good person to ask about that. He knows so much about credit reports and how to read/understand them. But now remember the bank can have your wages garnished also because of going to court. Then they would take a % of your check and apply it towards this debt until it is paid in full. Not trying to scare you but want you to be informed of what can happen when you go to court.

Judgements can stay on for 7 years - But - if the judgement hasn't been paid, it can be renewed. In which case the judgement could stay on your report forever.

Excuse me for interupting. I just need to know something. If you have a judgement against you and it is paid in full, shouldn't you receive something in writing that in fact, the judgement is paid?

Just curious about this before I start opening my big mouth. I had a judgement and it was supposedly to be paid by my attorney and I never saw anything in writing that it was paid. It's a long story and I don't want to bore anyone.

Just wondering.

If it was paid it should state that on your credit report. The only paper you get is the one to take to the courthouse to tell them that it has been paid. Check your credit report and see what it says. Or you can check out your states court website and look it up on there. It will say on the website if it has been paid or not and how much you have paid. If it doesn't then I would make a call.

Puddle,

Now you have me worried. This was a judgement that was found when I closed on my mom's house after she passed away. The closing attorney showed me a xeroxed copy of a judgement and held out money from the closing to pay it. I never heard anything after that and was wondering if I shouldn't question her further. I naturally assumed that she would send me a copy of everything and that it was PAID IN FULL.

Now I feel like the A$$.

I am sorry to hear about your mom No don't feel that way. You just thought what any person would have. How long ago was this? Was the judgment yours or your mom's? Have you pulled a credit report since you paid it? Also you can still contact the lawyer and say hey, I gave you money to pay this where is the paper saying it's paid in full?
If this was me, I would check my states court website to see what was on there about me, then pull a credit report and see if it says paid, Then call the lawyer if it doesn't. Let me know what you find.

Ok, if i go to court and they garnish my wages how much are they allowed to take a pay check. I work for the county jail and i realy dont want go to court and be seen by all my co workers, so embarrasing. Do you think i should go? What will happen if i dont go

Oh Puddle,

Thank you so much for the support. My mom passed away in Nov 05. It was suddenly and I was in PA and she was in NJ. Things are still so screwed up and I'm just trying to unravel things and make them right.

To be truthful, they appeared to be mine. I didn't see any paperwork from the courts, it was just a copy of a paper with my name on it. The buyer's attorney said he's keeping money in escrow to pay these. This happened in April 06. In October 06, I get a letter from this attorney again and now we need to sign a release form for him to get the payoff amounts. So I signed the papers and sent them off. Thus, the holidays came and went and we all know how things go and we forget. Now I'm sitting here and my husband said "hey what's up with the closing?" Yes, I know it's almost a year but like I said things happen.

All I know is that he kept over 21,000. One was for Sears and the amount on the paper said aroun 650, the second was God knows who and it was 7700. Does the amount go up? I really don't want to make another A$$ out of myself. Plain and simple I don't know what's going. I'm so stressed out that I can't think straight. It's just I want to get everything straight and breath again instead of having panic attacks.

I'm an only child and I don't have anyone I can turn to. My husband uses the same old....I don't know. It's a long story but let's just say it's my sister in law at the bottom of all this. Maybe someday I'll have time to blog this and it will be a winner.

Thank you for your support and time to answer me. You made my day. For the first time in a long time I have a smile. Thank you. I appreciate all the advice.

Ashley, I don't remember what the % of your check they can take, I am sorry But if you do not show up they can enter into a default judgment or something like that. It just pretty much means that the bank will get a judgment against you if you do not show.

Moki, That amount that the lawyer held and the amount you are showing doesn't add up. I am not sure if they still add interest or not. I would question it, because in a years time I don't think it would add up to that much. Maybe there were other things that the lawyer held money for.

Ashley - What state are you in? Garnishment laws vary from state to state.

Usually though it's up to 25% of your income that can be garnished. But you state may differ.