Hello everyone this is my first post and I just have a couple of questions. I contacted a Law firm that had a debt I owed. I agreed to a debt settlement and it will be paid off, they told me that they were about to take it to court but now they would stop it. Well about a week later I received two letters from bankruptcy attorneys in the local area saying they had been notified a lawsuit against me had been filed, one of the letters said by arrow financial services and it had a case number, the other one didn't any of that information. Both letters just said that they could help me in bankruptcy. Anyways the weird part is that also an 800 number keeps calling saying it is about a debt and all these happened a few days after I contacted the law firm. I'm trying to find out what's going on. Is there a way to find out if there is a lawsuit against me? I have not received anything regarding a lawsuit other than those two letters and the letters were dated more than a week ago. Why did all this start after I contacted the law firm? Thanks for any help.
Check your local counties' small claims court clerk's office. Chances are you just haven't been served yet or they're trying sewer service.
Sometimes companies will settle with you and then turn around and sue you, or if you go to court they will say that since you have paid you can leave, and as soon as you leave, they walk in to court and get the default judgment on you. You have to watch your back, make sure they send you agreement in writing that they will accept settlement but that they will fore go suing you in court. That is so so important. apexcrsrv is right you have to keep calling the court house to see if they tried sneaking it by you. Also check your credit reports, in case they try to sue out of country in another court.
And, for anyone who has received a judgment without being served, by all means, file a Motion to Vacate.
All of the posts you have received so far have given you great advice. Right on target. But I would carry it a bit further. First thing I would do is go to the clerk of the court and ask to see your public record and find that complaint. Then I'd ask to see the file and get copies of all the documents in the file. Then I'd go home and prepare my response and send it to the plaintiff's attorney along with a certificate of mailing. I've had to mention certificate of mailing so often lately that I have posted a copy of one on my Google Docs page so anyone who needs one can just copy and paste it into their word processor program such as OPEN OFFICE or Microsoft Word or Notepad or whatever and make the necessary changes and use it as their own. Changes such as the actual numbers from the green card they used to send it certified mail, return receipt requested and of course the name of the law firm isn't going to be Dewey Cheatum & Howe (That's only a "one size fits all" name.(LOL)) so that will have to be changed. I use OPEN OFFICE instead of Microsoft Word because it is a bit easier to use and keeps it's formatting better than Word does when it is emailed as an attachment. Open Office is free and has all the good stuff in it such as a spread sheet, power point presentation which I use a lot when making my videos and all the rest of the stuff contained in Microsoft Office. It can easily be downloaded by typing OPEN OFFICE into the search box in google or any other search engine. Just download and install. I actually use the real power point in Microsoft office when making videos because I can prepare my video and then record it using Camtasia Studio which turns it into a real video. Add audio to it and I have a video ready to publish. Once I have it as a video I can convert it to analog and view it on a big screen TV using my Western Digital HD TV viewer and a 1 terrabyte usb hard drive to store the video on. I used that at a seminar last night to show a video on Constitutional law. All I need to take is the HD TV viewer and a 36 inch flat screen. I like that much better than a projector and screen which is much more expensive and more difficult to pack around every Thursday night. But in your case, I would recommend that you get a copy of the docs in the case and then prepare your response and certificate of mailing and the rest of the documents you need and mail them to the plaintiff's attorney immediately then sit back and wait for the summons to get served on you. See how many calendar days they give you to respond to the complaint and file your response with the clerk of the court on the last possible day and at the last possible moment. The reason I suggest doing it that way is because the plaintiff's attorney might just goof up and file for a default judgment or make some other foolish mistake thinking you already filed your response to the court when you really only sent them a copy of what you will file at some future time. If they get stupid and do that then you can nail them for it. I just love to catch attorneys making stupid mistakes. (LOL) If they don't do it on their own then I'll see if I can't help them along sometimes. (LOL) For some unknown reason they don't seem to appreciate my help very much. (LOL)
