I wrote and got excellent help yesterday and have followed (thanks, Jam237 and all others) but my question now is this: If what I have done in answer to the summons and complaint I received from Arrow re Home Shopping Network balance of $837, and I do have to go to Court as this is a debt in my name (by daughter/long story) - since the complaint states that it is going for judgment against me, how does one know if it will be a judgment that I can pay off in a few months when I have the lump sum money;, or how does one know if they will then be garnished instead (which I certainly do not want). Is there a deciding point and who makes it? How can one avoid the garnishment and just have a judgment placed against you? Does the atty for Arrow make this decision and when? Thanks to anyone if they have any info re garnishment/judgment.
Typically, if answered denying everything as I told you to do, there will now be a process called discovery. You will be able to request information regarding their case against you and vice versa. Thats where the Request for Production of Documents come in. This is where settlements occur 95% of the time. After discovery, if there is no settlement there will be a trial, probably in front of a judge. If things go too far you may want to seek the advice of an attorney. Actually, I would probably seek the advice of an attorney anyway. After trial, if they win, they obtain a judgment. In Louisiana, once a plaintiff gets a judgment, there is a time period for whats called a "suspensive appeal." During that time period, about 37 days, the plaintiff cannot execute on the judgment because you are entitled to file a suspensive appeal. A suspensive appeal "suspends" the judgment so it cannot be executed upon until the appeal is resolved. If you do not file a suspensive appeal, the plaintiff can then execute the judgment against your wages, property, or whatever they can get their hands on. They usually file whats called a Judgment Debtor Rule to find out what kind of assets you have. If you do not file a suspensive appeal, you still have 30 more days to file a "Devolutive appeal," but that kind of appeal is worthless if you are a judgment DEBTOR because the judgment can be executed on. The above rules apply ONLY to LOUISIANA STATE COURT ACTIONS and may be different in your state. I was just giving an example. Also, I want you to understand the above is not intended to be legal advice. I do not know what your state court rules allow. I just wanted to illustrate that if you answer, a judgment is a long ways away. A settlement is not a judgment. So if you get a settlement, you still have to pay it, but they cannot seize property unless they bring an action to make the settlement a judgment. Your best bet, answer the lawsuit, denying everything, and see what kind of case they have.
Bless you, bless you - I have done up the Notice of Appearance and the Answer to the complaint and I will file them first thing Friday a.m. (had to get the day off to do it). I also validated yesterday with the atty filing the judgment so now I will sit and see what happens. I would just pay the darn thing if they were willing to take monthly payments as I can't afford to pay them a thousand outright right now, but since they filed the suit, I guess that would be too late to negotiate anyway. Thanks again for all of your help.
