Need Help! Summons, Interrogatories, Proposal. Now what?
Date: Fri, 08/15/2008 - 09:46
7/24: I received summons.
7/31: They sent me letter offering 70% settlement.
8/11: I answered the summons to court and to the law office. (local)
8/11: I also counter-offer to 50% settlement (they said I could try to do that in writing) - separate mailing - corporate office
8/12: I sent Discovery to Howard Schiff
8/14: Yesterday I got a letter from my court for Case Management Discovery Day (scheduled for Dec)
I want to settle but can't settle any more than 50%. I don't want to go to court. I have the money to settle for the 50%. What do I do now? How long do I wait to find out if they are willing to accept for 50% settlement?
If I do settle, can I request them to dismiss the case? How does this work?
This board has been very helpful to me, any help and advise are greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
I'm interested in this is well.
I currently find myself in a similar situation as the above poster.
I'm about to respond to a request for interrogatories. I went through one round of offer/counter-offer with although it was on the phone.
Any help anyone has on this subject would be greatly appreciated.
Make sure you go to court. I didn't because I had never heard of
Make sure you go to court. I didn't because I had never heard of such a thing with credit card bills and thought it was a hoax. Now they have emptied my bank account. I am a single mom living on $140 child support weekly and they took all I had to care for my child.
When you receive a summons, always file an answer, which is a do
When you receive a summons, always file an answer, which is a document that must be filed in person at the courthouse and a copy sent certified, return receipt to the attorney representing the creditor within the time frame (usally 20 days). If you do not answer the summons, a default judegement is entered and it gives the creditor the right to freeze you bank accounts and garnish your wages, even if the debt is old or incorrect. If it's a collection agency suing you, many times they will drop the lawsuit if you respond because they are just hoping for a default judgement and did not intend on going to court. You have the right to request that they substantiate the debt and if it goes to court you can represent yourself. You can also contact the creditor if it is correct and try to settle before the court date. If the debt is correct and it goes to court and you have a financial hardship, make sure you bring your fianancial records with you. In many cases, the judge will take your situation into account. If you ignore the summons and do not go to court or settle with your creditor, it will be an automatic judgement. Avoid that at all costs.
A couple of things I wanted to add about receivng a summons and
A couple of things I wanted to add about receivng a summons and what to do. As, I mentioned before, always answer the summons. When you answer the summons, if the debt is yours, request a Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act debt validation. This will buy you time and also stop collection activities until they repond with the validation. It also, lets them know you will not be an easy default judgement case. As I said in my earlier post, many times people don't respond to a summons and this is what the 1 is hoping for. make sure you send the request in writing to the creditor attorney, certified, return receipt.
After you receive the debt validation, file a Sworn Denial with the court. It should say..I deny that this debt is my debt, I deny that it is a valid debt and if it is valid, I deny that the amount sued for is the correct amount. Most collection agencies do not have the correct amount owed and if this is the case you have the right to deny it. When you file a Sworn Denial the debt collection attorney cannot rely upon a sworn affadvit of account and must produce a live witness to testify about the debt. The more you do to put up road blocks the better your chances that they drop the suit.
Look for my follow up posts for further information.
Thank you for bringing this up I too just recieved a summons fro
Thank you for bringing this up I too just recieved a summons from discover I have my debt settlement company working with an attorney. So discover wants to play hard ball with alot of us? They would not work with my debt settlemnt co at all, and now they are going to go through this? It would have been alot easier to work with my co.