Just got served

Can anyone offer any advice?

What is the name of the Attorney? Are they suing on behalf of Cap 1? You will need to answer the summons in the allotted time they give you, usually 20 - 30 days. Anything you discuss with this Attorney should be in writing, or I wouldn't make any arrangements.

The name of the firm is Rubin & Debski. If I end up making arrangement with the law firm do I still need to reply to the summons?

anyone?

Generally the court requires you to pay a filing fee in order to defend yourself. If you don't pay the court fees, legally you lose the right to defend yourself -- down the line, even if you have something in writing from the attorney, the court might not hear you out if you have not paid those fees by the return date. Therefore I would suggest you at least file your appearance so the court knows you are prepared to respond. After that, you can make side deals with the attorney to resolve it outside the courtroom.

If you make a deal with the attorney to setup a payment plan, he should then file a stipulation with the court (sometimes called motion to dismiss with leave to reinstate). This is in lieu of a judgment being entered, but gives the attorney the right to re-open the case if you default on the payments. Or if you pay-in-full or settle-in-full, the attorney should dismiss the entire cause. Either way you will want copies of those court motions. That way if the attorney doesn't file them, you can show them to the judge later on.

Awesome! Thanks for the info

One other question. What happens if I file my response with the court and then reach an agreement with the law firm/Cap1 and they file the stipulation prior to my pre-trial date will I still need to appear?

Generally not. Your summons should have instructions on it. Or else go to the court clerk, show them the summons, and they'll give you forms to fill out. Pay the filing fee, and the case will be docketed for an initial hearing at a later date.

Between then and the actual court date, try to work something out with the attorney. If you do reach an agreement with Cap1's attorney, and get the stipulation signed, you won't need to show up at the court hearing (the attorney will still show up in court because he needs to file the stip or dismiss). There is a bit of a trust issue that the attorney will actually file it and not move for default. But it would be unethical for him not to, and you could file a complaint against the attorney with his bar for that, and then you could later show the judge your papers if it came to that.

Personally I don't think the attorney would be devious and not file the stip. All they care about it getting paid, because they don't get paid unless you pay them. I've made an arrangement like this with an attorney that was suing me, and I had no problems. What you might do to make sure -- a couple days after the scheduled court date, call the clerk and ask for the status on the case. The clerk should tell you it was dismissed. If they say a default judgment was entered, you have 30 days to go back and vacate the order.

Great!! Thanks again!

Hello - I had the same thing happen with Capital One about 4 years ago. I contacted the attorney ahead of time and they were able to take monthly payments. They call it a Consent Judgement which is where you do not have to go to court, you just make payment arrangements for the debt with the attorney's office. They will file a consent judgment in court for you and when it's paid off, you can ask for a copy of the Judgement of Satisfaction and they will get it to you as soon as the judge signs it. I was able to make payments of $125 a month (they base it on what your salary is) to the attorney directly and I had it paid off in no time. I actually had very good luck with it and the attorneys were actually very helpful. Almost every bit of your payment goes to principal (hardly any interest at all...I want to say it was like 5% a month or something like that) so it worked out really well and it kept the cc company themselves from contacting me. It was with a local attorney office here in KC too so that made it easy for me to go and pay in person.

I just spoke to the county clerk for my area and it likes I don't need to file any type of response. I just need to show up to the pre-trial. I'm contacting the Cap1 attorney today to see what kind of deal I can make with them. Wish me luck!!

Well just got off the phone with the attorney and I'm now on a payment plan. They're going to send me the stipulation and a copy of my payment plan. Thanks everyone for your help!!

No problem, glad it worked out for ya.