How to Handle A Debt Collection Suit
8 August 2006Over at Debt Collection Lawyer, there is this good post on how to handle a lawsuit filed against you by a collection agency. I’m going to echo his warning that I’m not your attorney and that you are better off consulting one.
He gives some advice on fighting the suit every step of the way - including a couple of easy steps that shouldn’t be too difficult for a layperson to follow. I’m not sure how practical it is for a person with no legal experience to try to conduct a trial, but he tells you the basics of what you’d need to try to do anyway. At the very least, if you follow the first few steps, you can buy yourself some time.
I would add that one thing he doesn’t mention is that you shouldn’t be fighting the lawsuit in a vacuum. You should be using your actions here to try to help negotiate with the company you owe money to. The steps he gives are intended as signals to the debt collection attorney that you’re not going to roll over, and that it won’t be cost effective to keep suing you. Use that to your advantage - if you’ve got any cash you can spare, make an offer to the attorney to settle the whole thing. Even if you’re only offering 20 cents on the dollar, at this point that might be the most money the creditor can expect to wring out of you, and they might be happy with it.
Discuss this on the Free the Drones Debt Forums here.
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