Court Case is Tommorrow HELP!!!!?

tommorrow is my court case, to sum it all up. 3 years ago, I maxed out my $3,000 Credit card. Lost my job, place, and car. Now the credit card is trying to sue me for $6,000. Obviously, the other $3,000 is all interest. Im only making $1,800 a month, and $600 of of that goes to rent, and of course paying off school. What will be the verdict?!?!?! Im offering to settle the debt for $1,500 tommorrow?

WAIT!! The best thing to do is try to figure out who the attorney is for the credit card company before the case is called and tell him you have $500.00 dollars and may be able to come up with a couple of hundred more and if his client the (credit card company is not willing to take it) then you will have to consider filing bankruptcy:) TRUST ME he knows you can file a straight bankruptcy (a chapter 7) and erase the debt entirly for $500.00 plus any other unsecured debt you may have. So give it a try... I bet it will work..good luck!!

Mike it is too late---all you had to do was make a monthly minimum payment. This would not have happened. But, you never paid in three years. You been out of work for three years??? Too late to make a 25% offer---they want it all---$6000... They don't care about your expenses and other loans. .. Just hope they do not want you charged with a felony cause you took money from them. Usually they will start with your employer---garnish your pay check...Bosses always like to do that for all the employees...

Your time to make a $1500 settlement offer was BEFORE they sued. It's pretty unlikely they will accept it now.

Be sure to show up. Maybe you'll get lucky and the collector won't show up. If that happens, try to get the case dismissed with prejudice.

YOUR FIRST COURT DATE

If you admit you owe the money or don't show up on your first court date, they get a judgment. Ten days after the judgment, then they can get the garnishment.

Around here, most people don't show up for their court date, so they automatically plead guilty to owing the debt. Ignoring court papers is usually not a good idea, and especially not in Virginia where the judges don't lose sleep over whether you really knew about your court date.

Most people who do show up for court, just plead guilty.

The judge says, "do you owe this money?"

"Yes, but I can't pay it right now."

Judge, "OK, you can discuss it with that lawyer after court."

Do that, and you just pled guilty! The ONLY judge who cares about whether you can pay is a bankruptcy judge. Bankruptcy judges worry full time about whether you can pay, so the other judges don't have to worry about it at all. And they don't.

If you go to court on a warrant in debt you should tell the judge you are not admitting you owe they money and you need time to talk about it with a lawyer. Some judges will really crowd you to just plead guilty, but if you stand your ground they can't make you.

YOUR TRIAL

If you show up for your first court date, don't plead guilty and ask for a trial, you'll get a trial date a month or two later. At the trial you need to stop the creditor from proving that you owe the money.

The creditor's lawyer probably appears in that court on hundreds or thousands of cases each year. You're there for the first time. That gives you an idea of what your chances are of winning if you show up without a lawyer.

THE GARNISHMENT

Ten days after your trial--or ten days after you plead guilty--the creditor can get a garnishment. There isn't another court hearing on whether you should be garnished, the lawyer just walks down the hall to the clerk's office and signs a paper.

That paper is called a garnishment summons. The garnishment summons has a return date, but that return date is not a date for you to tell the judge you don't owe the money or can't afford to pay. The return date is the day your employer or bank is supposed to turn in the money.

From the clerk's office, one copy of the garnishment summons goes to your bank or employer, one copy goes to you. Nobody cares whether you get your copy before your payroll office or bank gets theirs.

This is what I meant when I told you in the beginning real garnishments can come without warning. There are lots of steps leading up to the garnishment, but when it finally hits, it hits without warning.

The garnishment summons tells your payroll office to take one-quarter of your pay and make plans to send it into court on the return date. The garnishment summons tells your bank to take your whole bank account, including everything that you deposit between now and the return date, and make plans to send that in.

Obviously, as soon as you know a garnishment is coming, you need to stop direct deposit of your paycheck. That's because they only can take one quarter of your pay (that's bad enough), but they can take the whole check once it hits your bank.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

If you are anywhere on this page, you really need to talk to a lawyer.

Fifteen million Americans filed bankruptcy in the last ten years. The reason is, for most people, bankruptcy works. For most people bankruptcy means they can't call you, they can't garnish you, and in three years you can be back to good credit.

SETTLEMENT...

You have waited maybe too long to do a settlement...but you can try. If you are going to try to negotiate a settlement use some of the tips this free website offers:

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/debt/settle_debts.shtml

Because the statute of limitations is not expired on your debt they may choose to go to court rather than settle the debt because they know the judge will rule in their favor or you will plead guilty not realizing that you are pleading guilty...

The odds are good that the judge will enter a judgment. If you allowed to speak, request a reduction in the interest and/or request a payment plan with something you can afford so they do not garnish your wages or assets like your bank account. Or your idea is excellent, but bring your checkbook they will want the money right away. FYI: be sure you put paid in full on your check. Get a paid receipt to keep something in writing to protect yourself in case the payoff doesn't reach your credit report.
Check out the website below for the Federal Trade Commission, go to the consumer protection tab and read up on your rights as a consumer under the Fair debt Collection Act.
Hope it helps

Chances are they will take it.

Your question sounded familar and I took a look at other questions you have asked. It appears you live in MD and you said this debt is 3 years old. In MD the SOL for a credit card debt is 3 years. If it is over 3 years old you may be outside of the Statute of Limitations. This is the legal period of time they have to file a suit against you.

So the first thing you need to do in court tommorow is not admit to any of the debt. But you do need to have the provide proof of your delinquency date. If this date is more than 3 years since the date they filed the suit the judge will throw it out because the SOL Expired.

Now, if they are in the SOL and it is your debt the judge will most likely put in a judgement against you. If the company feels that they have a good case they will NOT settle for $1500(which is actually 1/2 of your original debt). The best you probably will get them to is in the $4500-$5000 range. Garnishment is allowed in MD, but that will probably not be decided tommorow. You will probably be required to have another court date at which time you will be required to provide a statement of your finances.

If you don't own property , they can't put liens on and i believe there are income limits when garnishing wages .
All you can do is bring proof of your income , and make your offer .

Only the judge knows the verdict , we are not soothsayers here .

Good Luck and remember , they can't lock you up for credit debt unless you obtained it fraudulently .
(which does Not appear to be an issue for you )

>

The verdict will be you lose. What's your defense - you list none. After the judgment is entered against you, possible with attorneys fees and court costs as well, then they might be willing to negotiate, but I see no reason you couldn't pay the minimums on $3000 or $6000 with the income/expenses you mention.

If they asked to garnish your wages, and I was the judge, I'd say sure, go for it, Mr Credit Card rep dude.

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