Summons, help!!

You may want to call the clerk of the court in the district where this was filed or the original creditor. The original creditor may still be willing to work with you to get it paid back before a court date would ever come up.

If I was to call the clerk, what am I telling them? I will put a call into the company also, it can't hurt!

Ask the clerk what you should do? They are usually very helpful if you explain to them that you've never been in this situation before and don't know how to respond. I would try to settle it with the company and see if they will drop the suit. Is it a small claims court issue?

Sue~
I did call the company and they said that my file had been turned over the their attorney for which she gave me his name and number and told me to contact him because any payment arrangements would have to be set through him personally. I left him a pretty lengthy message and now I just wait to hear back from him. Thank you for your help. Also, I don't think that it's small claims, it came from our district court!

Angel,
Even though it came from district court it can still be small claims. I would still call the clerk of court to see what you should do, you need to answer that if you don't hear back from the lawyer. Is this a credit card or something else? Just wondering, I've had it happen to me also.

Sue~
They informed me that the lawyer was probably in court and if I don't hear from him today to call back tomorrow. I will give it a shot. I have 21 days to answer the court so I will wait it out a couple of days. This is actually for a payday loan company in my neighborhood. Sucks really! I just want to get it taken care of.

Also, how do we see how many cc points we have in here and how do we use them?

You should be able to see you cc points below your name when you post. It looks like you have 2576. Look in the pub thread and you can see how to redeem them.

I think the summons is small claims and I still say if I were you I would call the clerk to clarify what you need to do with it. Since it's a payday loan they may ask for wage garnishment until it is paid in full so I would definitely get in touch with someone who can help you pay this off. I had the same thing happen to me and I am paying on payment arrangements through the clerk of district court here and they are the same arrangements I had already established but they wanted the opportunity to garnish my wages if I didn't pay. Good luck!

It's always nice to know that you aren't the only one going through something like this. So you set up your payments through the clerk? I will give them a call this afternoon. Thank you so very much for your help!!

Also, where should I go to see how to redeem them? I am not familiar with all the spots on this site!!

I set up my payments through the clerk after I went to court. I went to court because I returned the summons as a "denied" because I already had a payment agreement with them. I do have a judgment against me which isn't good but I didn't look like the idiot in court she did because we already had a payment agreement and she wouldn't drop the case. Again, I would try to settle it and then try to get them to drop it instead of answering the summons and getting a judgement against you.

Click on forums and go to the pub and the thread should be there on debt cc points.

Sue~
So I shouldn't answer the summons then? This is all so confusing. I do appreciate your help. I just want it cleared up.

I will be sure to look at the other forum though. Thank you!!

angel, find an attorney in your town that is willing to spend a 1/2 hour with you (most will give you a half hour free as marketing.. when you call then ask if they will give your a brief free initial consultation

JJ~
Thank you for your help. I am going to just see what their lawyer tells me and what the court clerk has to say.

Work with the attorney on the debt. They will give you payments ... but if you default on the payments, they will issue a judgement. This is just a doorway to get the judgement.

Cathy~
So the lawyer that is handling the case for the company should be willing to set up these payments? I am still just waiting on his call. He was in court so if I don't hear anything I will call him back in the morning!

Having been sued several times for unsecured debt, here it goes... You have generally 21-35 days to answer the suit when it is intially filed. you can do this by mail. You will need to send a letter to the judge and atty. They may compel you to come to court, if so, please go. Inform the judge why this bill went unpaid, illness, unemployment, what ever the reason. At that point, the judge will ask if a satisfactory payment arrangement can be made. You should be asked how much you can pay, and they atty will either accept or decline. Now, if you made a good offer, and they decline, that may actually work in your favor. Judges do not like to hear a person is willing to make an acceptable arrangement and atty declines. If you do not go to court, the judgement will be ruled in favor of the creditor and the long process begins whether they will garnish wages, place a lein on your house, car, your chattels, ect..... if they accept a payment plan, you must make all payments, if you forsee a problem, get laid off, got sick inform the court IMMEDIATELY. Do not mess around. I am now paying off almost $9,000 in judgements, because I was not the wiser. This is all from credit card debts. If you need any help, let me know. What state do you live in?

JMid~
Thank you for responding. The summons says that I have 21 days to answer the courts. What do I need to put in my letter to them? I have also contacted the company and they told me to contact their lawyer proposing an payment plan. I called and am still waiting to hear back from him. I just don't know what my steps should be? All the help I can get is very appreciated.

Do you have a court date? Or does it just state that you have 21 days to respond?

What state do you live in?

JMid~
I don't have a court date, just 21 days to respond.
I live in Michigan.

I do not know consumer protection laws there. but there is someone on this website who lives in MI and may know where you can turn to. PM your e-mail address and I will forward it to her.

I have learned my lesson the hard way. Some people think I am a deadbeat, no just poor and have rotten luck. I am trying to amend these bad choices and i did not have the knowledge back then to prevent these from happening. And by the way, we do. I felt the same way. They do not want to do what they do, but it is the law and the judges are just following the law. I have two court officers that I am paying the judgements off to, they are really nice guys and They told me themselves, if you get into trouble call me right away. As long as you send me $10 a month till you get straight, no more legal action can happen. They to not want your junk to sell, They just want the money. As long as you show an attempt to pay, build a good solid consistent pattern, they will leave you alone.

JMid~
I am guessing that I am in the same boat as you as I too have the bad luck!!
I have left two lengthy messages for the lawyer on his voicemail, yesterday and today. I have also sent him a certified letter stating everything that I had told him on the message. I know that he is a busy man, but I have yet to hear anything back. I know that I have 21 days to answer the court, which leaves me 2 weeks now, but I don't want to wait until the last minute. If he doesn't call me back, what should I do?

Don't wait to hear from this attorney. Prepare a letter to the clerk of the court and the judge if necessary. Be on the ready to send it out quickly. Even if you talk to the atty, he may not agree with your payment arrangements. Are you working now? If you are not, or on disablity, they cannot compel you to pay anything until you are working. On unemployment or disablity, the only type of garnishments that are enforceable are student loans, and child support payments. Unsecured debt cannot be garnished on an employee's unemployment or disabliity payments. And if you are on disability or unemployment, the judge may have some sympathy for you. He may even compel the atty to accept the payment arrangement. The judge will see that you are attempting payment arrangements and he may also stay the judgement.

Also send a copy of the same letter certified to the atty. If you feel you need an atty, call legal aide for your county.

Communication is the key here. If you have access to a free fax, that would obviously be more cost effective.

Angel add the www to this link and see if you can find someone to help you

michiganlegalaid.org/

Well, ok. that's a great idea. My work fax does the same thing.

LessisMore~
I don't have a fax number for this gentleman. Everytime I call, it rings a few times and goes to his voicemail, no receptionist or anything. Do you happen to have a copy of a sample letter of the info that I should put into my letter to the court? I don't want to say or not say for that matter, anything that would get me into any worse trouble. I am working (now) and intend on paying this off. I can only do what I can out of my budget, you know?

JMid~
Thank you for your responses also. I would just feel so much better knowing that a payment plan was in play and that it was going to be okay. I am going through some health issues right now, and the stress isn't good!! For being 24 you would think that I had the health of a 90 year old!! ( a little bit of humor!!)

JJ~
Thank you

LessIsMore~
It is quite amazing! I was surprised by what you found out about him. I just sent him and email and also called him again, but of course, it went directly to voicemail, not even a ring this time! Weird! I thought that I was pretty good on the web, but I wouldn't even know where to begin to find things out like that. Thank you so much! :lol:

Jmid is a female. Usually, a response either letter or appearance in court is needed to respond to the summons. HEHEHE!

Oops, honest mistake I imagine!! :)

I just don't know what I am suppose to put into the response letter? I don't have a court date anywhere on the summons, and I am hoping it doesn't get that far!

in response letter to court, inform court that attempts to reach atty unsucessful or payments have been made what ever the current situation is.

Cute smurf Angel. LessIsMore that's a little scarey that you could find that much info that fast.

LessIsMore~
Really, all busy signals? That's really weird for a lawyer isn't it? I just find that hard to believe that he has all these clients that can't get in touch with him. The next step, faxing. That's the best that I can do.

Sue~
I wanted to make my profile pic a little different, glad you like it.

I haven't seen smurf stuff for a long time. That is so cute angel.

Tammy~
Thank you, I am glad that you like it!

LessIsMore~
Really, a lawyer that doesn't take any calls, that just seems out of the ordinary? Just curious, what does FWIW stand for? So I should just fax him the same letter that I had sent to him in the mail? And also, if I was to send a letter to the court, what should I put in that?

For all of you that have been helping me....

Well low and behold I still haven't heard anything back from my voicemails or my email to the lawyer. It's just driving me bonkers! Try to go and rectify a situation and no one wants to help you out. It's just so frusturating. I don't understand how he can be a public attorney, I was told to contact him, and it's near to impossible to do? I have been instructed to fax him also, is that going to do any harm in my case? I can fax here from work and get a sent receipt showing that it was received, but I just don't want to piss the guy off. (excuse my language) I just don't know what my next step should be???? Help!! Please!!

Guess you need to call him at church:)

I think so! That would really throw him through a loop!!

LessIsMore~
You are so full of helpful advice, and I appreciate every bit of it. I am going to fax over the letter starting first thing Monday morning, and also get the letter out to the court/judge on Monday also. Certified would be best? I am so nervous if this gets to the court room, but if it does, then like you said, I should be all set with my paperwork in hand ready to make a deal of some kind.

Well, my husband and I entered into a debt settlement8 program last month which is different than debt consolidation. I don't believe any creditors have been contacted yet but will soon. My husband has a loan with Citifinancial that was included in the program. My counselor said they can't do anything with Citifinancial until it goes to collections. The account is now sixty days past due but talk about harassment. They call him twice a day, send letters. They called him twice yesterday morning, once before 9 am and then like an hour later. They have called the references on his loan. I do not believe they have diclosed any information but this has all been noted with our debt settlement company. Yesterday we get an letter from them stating that if he doesn't make a payment by April 25th that they will look into legal proceedings, which may include court, wage garnishment, etc etc. I sent an e-mail to my counselor about the letter and will fax it to her tomorrow morning. It has me a little worried because are not ignoring our debt but I don't want to see my husband get sued over this. There is no collateral on the loan but can they put a lien on the house? I will wait and talk to my counselor tomorrow to see what they are going to do about this. We will be making our second payment to the company but it does take time for the debt settlement negotiations to start. I've been having a bad couple of days and this didn't help matters much. We won't drag our feet on this and will contact an attorney if we need to, I guess I just needed to vent. I checked on ripoffreport.com and this is almost like a payday loan company from all the negative information. We will never deal with this company again.

Whatever you do - do not miss that court date. If you miss that date they will win by default.

Take all relevant material with you to court and state your case to the judge.

They are suing you over a dispute and its up to you to defend yourself. If you can afford a lawyer then great if not then let the documents speak for themselfs.

LessIsMore. I also have pre-paid legal. Its amusing how they try to push you around only find that you actually have legal representation. I think they are betting that since you owe money there is no possible way that you could afford an attourney. They must hate pre-paid legal.


But in this case Angel has received an actual court summons. Its not from an attouney but actual notification from the State to appear in court. Its not a threat its the real deal.

Don't miss that court date. Its also your time to shine and if you miss it they get everying in their claim by default. Trust me on this - it happened to me.

I should also point out that they are suing because they believe that you have not been making adequate payments. Its your job to show up and ask the judge to mediate either a one-time settlement or a suitable payment arrangement.

If you already have a payment arrangement or have made attempts to set one up then the Judge is not going to appreciate this creditor wasting the States time.

If you do not show up in court then you lose by default - i.e. are legally declared as not honoring the debt and are tacked with whatever amount they claim you owe.

Show up or your wages will be garnished for the full amount + any miscellaneous costs they chose to tack on. Its a very serious matter.

Sorry for all the posts.

To Pay Day Loan Avenger-Hang in there! Heaven knows I have vented here plenty,that's what we are here for,to help. Yes,do get in touch with your counselor firt thing.I think the trick word they are saying is, they MAY have to look into other options,garnishment,etc. LVNV,Phillilps-Cohen,and the other sharks have threatened garnishment,etc. with me. As for your house,I may be wrong,but I don't think they can touch your house,cars,tec. on an unsecured loan. As far as judgements,they can take a percent,our state is 25%.BUT,none of that has happened yet,so take a breath,calm down,they can't eat you for lunch :lol: Although with the harrassment it feels like it. Keep track of all the times you think they have broken rules,calling before certain times,third party info.,etc.If they ever take you to court you want to have yourself covered and show,that through a counselor you are trying to take care of this. The more paperwork you have documenting this the more it will help you. Who knows,your counselor may be able to get this all straightened out tomorrow and nothing more will be done. Hand in there,I know how you feel. :wink:

I thank you all so much for all of your advice.

Glynnie11~
You stated that my summons is the real deal and that I definitely should be there for the court date, but that's just the thing, the paperwork doesn't show a court date. Just that I have 21 days (now like 11 days) to respond to the court with an answer. I have tried contacted the attorney everyday, via telephone and email and I haven't gotten a response back. When I called the company that this debt it for, she nicely advised me that any payment arrangements would have to be set up with the lawyer, which seems nearly impossible since his phone goes to a voicemail everytime and he won't get back to me!! Urgh!! I want to try and set something up, but I also don't want to miss my deadline for answering the courts. And that my friends is another subject. How do I answer the courts? What does that consist of? I want it to look as professional as it should, without harming myself in the process. PLEASE HELP A GIRL OUT!! :oops:

For all of my fellow forum members, thank you all so much for your help and advice. And it comes time for me to ask another big favor of you all!!

Does anyone out there know how to file an "answer" for a court summons? I have little over two weeks to answer the courts and I don't know where to begin. Please help!! :?:

LessIsMore~
How do I get the information for them? What do I look under?

LessIsMore~
Macomb County, MI

LessIsMore~
Your ROCK!! I will go online and check them out right now!! Thank you so much!