civil suit help me please

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 :rose: 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 :oops: 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.

i live in virginia, and i have court tomorrow and i dont want to go because i work for the county jail and alot of my co workers work at the courts. What should i do. they said i would have to pay them all the money before court and right now i am living paycheck to paycheck so there is no way i can pay them off. Please Help! What do you think the best thing to do is?

Ashley, I can understand that you are embarrassed, but it is definitely in your best interest to go to court. If you don't, the judge will definitely honor the bank's complaint for judgment against you, and most likely they will garnish your wages.

By going to court and at least explaining that you tried to work out a payment arrangement and it was refused, it shows that you tried to do something and do care about the debt. It looks much better on you to go. Sometimes we have to swallow our pride and do some humiliating or embarassing things to clean up our messes, but I guess that is part of life.

Moki, If u've paid off the judgement then they're supposed to send somethign to the courts telling them the judgement's been satisfied then the court will update ur credit report as satisfied. It can stay on ur credit report for 10 years!! ANd if u don't pay it then they can renew it over and over again, so it can be there for infinity if u don't pay it!
Ashley, U NEED to go to court! If u do not show up they will win by default and can garnish ur wages and put leins on ur property! They may still get the judgement but if u explain to the judge he may help u with a repayment plan. Also, most times the first time going to court is just for them to get all ur information of what u own, bank accts and such. Please do show up! It's VERY important! Were u served a summons first???
Good luck and let us know how it goes,
Ang
P.S. I have a default judgement and i used to be like u embarassed and ashamed of myself but since i've foudn this site i'm NOT anymore. Things happen to people and it doesn't make them any less of a person than they were before! :D

yes i was served summoms by someone but it wasnt the sheriff.

Was a citaton served with the summons? By that i mean a legal document with statements on it... Goes kinda like this:





Did u recieve anything like this?
If so, did u answer it?
I'm trying to figure out why u have a court date but each state is different and does suits differently.
Ang

no i just received a warrent in debt(civil claim for money) stating how much i owe and the court fees.

Ashley may I ask you which bank is the one taking you to court? I am now worried cause I have a $900 overdraft fee with Wachovia because of the PDLS and they just closed my account and sent me to collections. Now I am worried they might take me to court.

and u have a court date set? I'm thinking this may be some kind of arbitration to try and settle the debt before going before a judge but it's just a thought.
When is ur court date again? Sorry i forgot.
Ang

Ok i just looked back and ur court date is today! YIKES! Ok take a deep breath and count to 10 Ashley. Show up in court and bring any and all paperwork u have on ur pdl's!! U may be able to explain ur situation to whoever, the judge or arbitation person, but make sure to bring paperwork to show that pdl's caused this to happen to begin with!!
All that will happen more than likely is they will set up some sort of repayment plan for u to pay the bank back.
Good Luck Ash and let us know how it goes for ya ok?
I will be thinking of u today and sending good vibes ur way.
Ang

Ashley listen to all of us in this forum, please go to court they will set up payment arrangements. You really need to go and you will see that it will go well for you!! Good luck and let us know asap.

well i went to court today and they granted chesterfield federal credit union a judgement against me but when i spoke to them today they want to give me a negative loan and i make monthly payments on that. They told me it was no payment arrangements when i went into the bank and now they saying i can have one. So does the judgement mean that my wages are going to be garnished or do i just need to pay them back.

They are saying u "CAN" have this loan to pay it off?? If so, then i don't think they will garnish ur wages as long as u make these payments on time...
This whole process for u seems strange to me, didn't u even have any questions to answer??? Or did u ignore a citaton? If so, then they got a default and this was to determine how u were gonna pay them back....
Hope this makes sense to u,
Ang

Take them up on their offer to make payments to them. The judgment will still be on there until the debt is cleared, but this will keep them from garnishing your wages. They would have to have an order to garnish your wages and if you are making them payments they will not do that but it's important that you make those payments on time. I had a judgement for some medical bills and I made payments of $50 to the creditor and my wages never got garnished.

no i didnt ignore the citation i only received a summons and if i would have said today that i disagreed oweing them the money then the case would have went to trial. they didnt ask me anything but did i owe them i said yea and he said judgement granted and told me i could speak with the representative to see if he will give me a payment arrangement and thats what i did.

Ahh ok, got it now Ashley! And the bank told u no they wud not give u a payment arrangement?? If not then they can indeed garnish ur wages.
Hope this helps a little,
Ang

Ashley, the way I am understanding it after you went to court, you talked with the bank and they said you could make arrangements for payment, right?

I would follow Sassnlucy's advice -

I'm confused to sass but i think what she is saying is that the judge told her she would be able to try and make arrangments but the bank told her no... but i could be totally misunderstanding here!
Ang

sorry for the misunderstanding. no i went to court the judge granted the judgement and said i could speak with the representative and see if we could work out something. he told me i could make payment arrangements but before i went to court they told me no.

Did u tell the judge they had already told u no?? Maybe call them back and tell them the judge told u to call and see if they wud take payment arrangements!
Hope they agree Ashley!!
Ang

Definitely contact the bank about making payment arrangements. I think more than likely, they will let you. If there is a lawyer handling it, you can give the law office a call and make arrangements through them. We had 2 judgements that were handled by law firms and they both allowed us to make payment arrangements through them. Let us know what happens!