Court Experiences

First and foremost, you have to respond to the summons. Otherwise, if you do not, then the suing party will be awarded a default judgment against you, which is not good.

If this attorney is in fact working for Citibank,you had best work out payment arrangements if the debt is recent.Citi is known for having good proof and are also known for their tendency to file suit.

Hey Cajun if Citi were to get a judgment against him what do you think the terms of repayment would be? Do you think he could argue out the excessive late fees and penalties? Do you think they will garnish, lein, go for a repayment plan or use some other method? It just seems to me that it is better to eat a judgment than to file bankruptcy.

Joshua - do you have any advice or resources for how to answer a summons?

Dollars - when you say eat a judgement, what do you mean? I have read where a lot of people on here say to avoid judgements at all costs.

At this point I guess I have no choice and hope that I can arge the amount down to a feasible amount, or that Citi takes mercy on me.

When people talk about avoiding a judgement, they are talking about getting it paid off, or making payment arrangements before it gets to that. If you are working with an attorney, show him other living expenses you have, and explain that you can make xx dollar payments. They can still take you to court, but if you work out payment arangements, they usually won't. Be sure and get any arrangements or settlements in writing. In answering a summons, the paper usually states what questions you are to answer. If you go to court, the judge will end up setting up payments, in most cases. If you feel you have hardship- you can put this in your answer to the court, that financially this will cause a hardship for you. But if you do, be prepared to show that this is true with paperwork. Good Luck- let us know what happens..Karen

When I said eat a judgment basically I meant let it go to court and the get a judgment as opposed to filing bankruptcy. Personally I do not think you should avoid a judgment at all cost. I would do my best to settle it before they get one but I would probably not file bankruptcy unless you have more than 100,000 in other unsecured debt that you can bankrupt with it. As Bossy said you can still take measures to avoid a judgment in terms of settlements or payment arrangements but if they will not accept your terms and they move ahead with a law suit then you will have a judgment against you unless you file bankruptcy. They will use that judgment to try to enforce the terms of repayment they want. It is up to a judge to approve the terms though so you might be able to get a judge to agree with you on terms of repayment and end up back to what you wanted as a settlement anyway.

The thing about a judgment is it is only worth something if you have the means for them to collect but it does give them a longer window of opportunity to collect before the judgment expires. If you have no equity in a home or car and you have no money in a savings account then all they can do is force a monthly repayment plan on you maybe with a wage garnishment. The terms are set by a judge so it????????s not like they can come in and take your entire pay check every month. If you do not keep a monthly budget you should start one and use that as proof to show where your money goes and how much extra you really have. For example, if you pay rent, car payment, utilities, food, insurance and they are 900, 400, 400, 200, 200 respectively then that is 2,100 per month not including any other debt that should be paid. If your monthly take home pay is 2,400 then there is no way a judge is going to grant a payment of 1,000 per month as a repayment and make you default on your home mortgage, auto loan and utilities. On the other hand if your monthly take home is 10,000 per month then a judge is not going to be too lenient with you on a repayment plan.

Thanks, as always, for the information Dollars. You too, Bossy. I will let you know how I make out with the Citi account. It has REALLY been stressing me out. But I don't feel as helpless coming to this Forum, and for that I thank you.

I will definatly use a budget as a means of settleing. Doing it that way, meaning saying I can only afford 300/mo in lieu of 700/mo, do you think I will have less of a chance being able to argue out some of the nefarious interest and other fees?

Hazeleyes- you can put the offer on the table with them, they make take it, thinking something is better than nothing! The ones I have worked with, I told them, look, you can get xx dollars a month, or I will be forced into bankrupty, and not get anything. They always ask me if this is a threat, and I say, no it's the truth-we are barely getting by, and this is the max I can afford. It has worked for me- but if you tell them this, be sure you can back up what you say!!..Good Luck-keep us posted..Karen

Well as I expected, the sent me a summons. They guy told me I don't have to go to court, just answer it.

I'm going to put another post dealing with this.