I was served for bad credit card debt, and knew i needed to do something so a default judgement wasn't awarded. I researched the internet and knew I needed to write an 'answer', and 'notice of appearance'. I was overwhelmed with writing an 'answer', but found a 'notice of appearance' was easy to write. I went ahead and filed a 'notice of appearance', because I read on multiple websites that this alone would suffice so a default judgement wouldn't be awarded. Well, 2 months passed and a letter stated in the mail that a default judgement has been awarded on behalf of citibank. What do I do? Can I still fight this? Did the courts screw up because I wrote the 'notice of appearance'. I even called the court house and they said the letter was received and recorded certified mail. Do I have a leg to stand on legally because I filed a 'notice of appearance'? I live in Texas so they cannot garnish my wages, and I am tired of banking with a bank in Panama.
As I understand it, the complaint contains the facts as the plaintiff sees them. They send this list of facts (in the form of the complaint) to you (the defendant) to agree with or disagree with in your answer. What you disagree with is what gets debated in court at or before trial. Unless you disagree to the facts as they are stated in the complaint in your answer, then the court assumes that you agree to them. So, by not sending in an answer that disputed the plaintiff's facts, you agreed (by default) to whatever they said in the complaint. Receiving no answer to the complaint by the deadline, the plaintiff probably just filed a motion for summary judgment because you just agreed to everything by not disagreeing with anything. Seeing that there was no disagreement, the judge granted the summary judgment. I'm not a lawyer, but if I had to guess, I'd say you're chances of turning this around are slim unless you have something like some FDCPA violations you could use against the collection agency but, even then, I wouldn't be optimistic. Good luck.
Dumb Bob thinks that if the motion includes materials beyond the complaint, and if so styled, it can be converted to a motion for summary judgment. But without any answer, the correct motion seems to be for a default. Since the defendant claims to have properly appeared, all materials from the other side and from the court should have been severed on the defendant. There should be no surprises about what is going on. If that is not happening, why not? Of course, if the defendant ignored the hearing for the judgment even though she was properly notified, that argument won't be available.
notice of appearance Definition 1 Formal notification by a party to a court (an to parties already involved in a case) that it wishes to participate in the litigation process. I also read this hxxp://howtoanswerasummons.com/?cat=9 Notice of Appearance Notice of Appearance This letâ??s the court know that you are appearing and actively participating in this lawsuit. It also gives you the right to receive each and every document, motion, and order that the court and the plaintiff file so that you are not left in the dark and know exactly what is going on with your case. This basically ticks off the Collection Attorney because now he knows you mean business.
All of that may be true enough but basically it makes no difference whatever whether the collection attorney is ticked off or not. Best s/he not get too ticked so s/he can wear the same underwear to get glad in that they wore to get mad in without having to go do laundry. (LOL) The problem is that a notice of appearance isn't even required of attorneys in many states any more as it once was. The first document they file in any case is considered to be their notice of appearance. In any state where it is required they must still file their paperwork with the court or their notice of appearance is worthless. So if that is all you filed then no wonder you got a default judgment against you.
So you did this and then ignored the motion and hearing for a default judgment? Since they appear to have gotten their default judgment, Dumb Bob wonders how ticked off they could be.
@Dumb Bob I haven't stepped foot in a actual court room for this judgement. A summons was delivered to my door and I gave a 'notice of appearance" in writing to the courts and attorney notifying them of what I thought meant a default judgement wouldn't be given by filling out the form. A letter was mailed to me 2 months later that a default had been granted.
Since you didn't file an answer, or motion for dismissal or summary judgment or any of the other possibilities, Dumb Bob suspects that a default is the correct response from the plaintiff. But he wonders why you never got word of when the hearing was to be, given that you did properly appear. Appearing but not doing anything else might be clever but it certainly requires paying close attention to what is happening. It's water under the bridge now, but perhaps checking each week to see if you are on the calendar would've avoided this problem. And contacting the other side by calling them on the phone is also a possibility. It should go without saying that you would be wise to get a consult with a lawyer licensed to practice in your jurisdiction. Some sort of motion to vacate the judgment seems necessary. Time is usually limited depending on the reasons offered so you should read your rules and not wait too long.
