How should a Summons be Answered?

[ghacorp]

What is the proper procedure for answering a court summons in order to stall a creditors attorney from obtaining a default judgment after twenty days? DISCOVER BANK is the problem in that they were never willing to compromise and did nothing but send Hallmark cards advising they were pussy cats and would offer zero percent for twelve months then immediately filed suit on the date of charge off. Rather than refer to CA's DISCOVER BANK's policy is to immediately pursue judgments with expensive lawyers who typically add thousands of dollars in fees to the outstanding debt. As validation letters apply to collection agencies, is it proper to request validation from a creditors attorney and then file this response with the court? I think it would serve others reading this board to have an answer to this question. Thank you!

P.S. I GUESS IT DOESN'T PAY TO DISCOVER!

[LadynRed]

First, you have to answer the summons no matter what. Not answering the summons doesn't automatically give them the default judgment, but it CAN get an arrest warrant put out on you. In order to fight them getting a default judgment, you MUST go to the court date. If you don't go, then they WILL get the default judgment.

[ghacorp]

I was referring to a civil summons, not a criminal summons. Essentially the summons allows 20 days for response to the court and creditor's attorney denying the amount due and legal fees, else judgment is presumed granted by default. I am not aware of anyone ever being placed under arrest for failing to address a debt in or out of court by ignoring a summons, simply refusing to answer the door when the Sheriff knocks, or simply thumbing your nose and telling an OC, CA or whomever you're not going to pay and that's it. The original question here is whether Discover Bank's private attorney should be requested to validate the debt, i.e. provide evidence of the credit card agreement, etc. Debt validation may not be appropriate at this stage, I don't know, but perhaps Admin could answer that question. Denying the allegations in the summons within the specified period should at least stall the matter in court for a period of time until a date in open court could be set, then at that point simply do a no-show. When push comes to shove, bankruptcy ends it all in that judgments and any and all collection actions are terminated with respect to unsecured debts.

[LadynRed]

I WAS referring to a civil summons. If you don't answer the summons, in most states, they CAN issue a warrant for your arrest for basically ignoring the summons.

BK will most certainly make it all go way... that's an option for me as well. If 'the big one' sues (2nd mortgage now unsecured debt), the BK lawyers will be hearing from me !

As to answering the summons, here's a link on how its done:

http://www.nwjustice.org/docs/205.html

Hope this helps

[Edit by LadynRed on Tuesday, 5, 2002 @ 08:55 AM]