I have been to court with a creditor, with much help from Teresa at Superior Debt I was able to learn all that I needed to do to get this taken care of, even when I was not a client of hers. She was more willing to help point me in the direction of where the information was. So let me help those that are facing similar situations.
1) be sure to prepare a budget, list all your expenses and income gather up utilities statements, receipts, invoices, all that you can gather.
2) be sure if you have a medical condition to get a letter from your doctor detailing your health issues.
3) DO NOT ignore the court date or responding to the court. search on the internet for samples of response letters or call the court clerk and ask for guidelines in responding to the court.
4) If any kind of changes happened such as job loss, health issues (depression, blood pressure, cancer, having a baby, etc) all of these are viable and can be quantified by the doctor.
5) If you are in a program to assist you with the debt, you will also want to bring or submit a copy of the contract. So illusrate to the judge that you are working on taking care of the debt and not just letting it go.
6) REMEMBER you are building your own case, you'll want to give the judge as much information about your situation with documentation to prove your case. The only way the judge can help you is if you can give them the information needed.
In my case, after doing all of the following. The judge ruled to stop all interest, reduced the amount of legal fees and I pay $75 a month until the debt is paid in full. WOW this was a huge relief. Superior Debt has a huge asset with Teresa as their counselor. I would not know where to start, so now I can share with you all my experience and give you a little direction. This is like a pay it forward!
Good Luck