I am currently being sued by Ford Motor Credit. Iâ??ll be honest and admit what happened, since Iâ??m not ashamed, just realizing I made mistakes in my past. I leased a 2004 Ford F150. At the time I worked at the dealer I leased it from. My job in Auto Sales didnâ??t work out at that company, so I moved onto another dealer. I was doing well. I had maybe 1 or 2 late payments but I always made up for it. Then things just got really bad again, and no one was making money. So after a few late payments they contacted me and I got in touch with the Repo Guy and set up for them to repo it. I live in Pennsylvania. This was January 2008 about. I was served these papers by the Sheriff about 10 days ago. I will type everything that is on the paper. Court of Common Pleas Of Bucks County Office (PENNSYLANVIA By the way) Breach of Contract Demand Under $50,00 Jury Demands, NO Civil Action Complaint You have been sued in court. If you wish to defend against the claims set forth in the following pages, you must take action within 20 days after this complaint and notice are served, by entering a written appearance personally or by attorney and filing in writing with the court your defense or objections to the claims set forth against you. You are warned that if you fail to do so the case may proceed without you and a judgment may be entered against you by the court without further notice for any money claimed in the complaint or for any other claim or relief requested by the plaintiff. You may lose money or properly or other rights important to you. Theyâ??re suing for the amount of$11,635.17 (which includes lawyer fees) They attached the Manheim Auto Auction sheet where they sold the car and a copy of the contract I signed when I bought the car. I do not have money to pay for a lawyer. I know I messed up in the past and Iâ??m honestly on my way to clearing up everything I have done wrong. I have actually been very proud of where Iâ??m heading in life and this was the last thing I wanted to see. But I want to clear up. I found the lawyers Email address, phone number and address that represents ford. I just need advice. They say file something in writing to the court, whats that? How do I do that? What happens after that? Advice, Iâ??m confused and kinda scared. I donâ??t want to go through frozen bank accounts, garnished wages, etc. If that happens I might have to go through bankruptcy and I donâ??t want that. I really want to clear my debts, and I thought ford would of sent me something to set up a payment plan. Maybe they did and I never saw it, but I just want to take care of this. Thanks in advance for any help =) I'm not in Auto Sales anymore by the way. In fact, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone right now. not during times like these. I do have a very stable job that pays me pretty good, and has a lot of potentional. Thats why I want to start repaying everything and fix my mistakes.
I'll throw in my two cents since no one else has. In Pennsylvania your wages can not be garnished to pay a debt, including a judgement. Your assets may be frozen, and this would interfere with direct deposit. The rest of your questions can be answered by searching the forum, but to briefly summarize, write a letter to the attorney collecting the debt and offer a settlement. Send it via certified mail with signature required. They may not want to settle; if not, offer a payment plan that you can afford. You're not being sued in small claims (called Magesterial District Court in PA) so you'll need to do a lot of homework if you want to fight it out in court. Google "Bucks county rules of civil procedure". See if your county courthouse has a self-help legal center. Given the newness of the debt, SOL defense is out, and I doubt estoppel / laches would work. Your best defense may be to demand copies of all paperwork in discovery and start calling in people to testify about the validity of the records (you might be able to block paperwork and affidavits as hearsay since you can't cross-examine them). I'm no expert, but based on what I've read here and elsewhere, unless you can show that the lawyer or Ford or any subsequent debt collectors made a procedural error or screwed up some paperwork, you appear to be in a bad spot. A lot of your questions have already been answered on here; try browsing the threads and/or searching for "repossess". Good luck.
Don't just send something to the attorney. You need to file an answer with the court. You write a document that spells out your response to each paragraph of the complaint. For example, if they say that the balance is such-and-such, you can reply that you do not have sufficient knowledge to either admit or deny. File this with the court where you are being sued, and also send the copy to the attorney. If you search here you should find some examples, but the actual format is based on your local Rules of Civil Procedure. Sparq told you how to find them. You're going to have to read them, maybe go to the courthouse and review some cases, or get a Pacer account and look at cases in your local court.
