It is a shock when you are served a court summons and informed that a debt collector is suing you. You feel like a bad citizen, a low life, you feel violated. If you are notified that you are being sued by a collector, now is not the time to hide. Read on for tips on what to do in this scary situation.
They ignore the law suit
The absolute worst thing you can do when you receive a court summons is ignore it. When a court is involved,it is not going away on its own. You have a limited window of time to respond to the summons. If you ignore the summons and miss court, you get what is called a default judgment. This means you automatically lose and have to pay the debt as well as court costs for the plaintiff.
They admit guilt
A decent person looks at a law suit like this and probably feels like they are in the wrong. They think,“well, I do owe this debt”. You cannot admit to the plaintiff that you are guilty. When you defend yourself in court (or an attorney defends you), you are saying the debt collector does not have the right to this debt. Do not admit guilt.
They assume they have no rights
It is only natural to feel bad about owing a debt and being sued for it, but that does not give debt collectors the right to harass you day and night. The FairDebt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) was created to protect you in situations like this. The debt collector is not allowed to act like the mob. They cannot threaten you, call you at odd hours, or deceive you in any way.
They think they cannot afford protection
If you are sitting there with a new summons in hand from a debt collector, now is the time to get on the computer and start shopping for an attorney. Just like any other service,you often get what you pay for. Do your research and choose an attorney that will go to bat for you and communicate with you throughout the process. While it is possible to defend yourself in court, you should think about the repercussions if you are not secretly a law genius and lose your case.
If you are being sued by a debt collector, you need help. If you let them, debt collectors will bully you and get as much out of you as they can. You need the skills and experience of Elias Dsouza with Dsouza Legal group. Elias has been protecting people from debt collectors for 15 years.