Here is one of the flaws Regardless of how old the debt is or how baseless a lawsuit seems, DO NOT BLOW OFF A LAWSUIT. This goes for any suit. Read the Complaint and Summons very carefully about the amount of time you have to file an Answer or (as often occurs in Small Claims Court) go before the Court. If you don't Answer and/or appear in court as instructed in the Complaint and Summons, a default judgment can--and almost always will--be entered against you. This is precisely what the creditor wants. They get an easy judgment, and you get screwed. For example, lets say I sue Ted & Ned. Neither of them answers theComplaint/Summons. I then get a default judgment against them, regardless of how much BS my lawsuit was based upon. ><- <>- ><- <>
It's not uncommon for a collector to sell an account and the next collector files for and receives a default judgment (using outdated location information so you are not even aware of the court date), and then seizes your bank account or garnishes your wages.
I had a really bad night sleep last LB....all your fear mongering on default judgments got the better of me. I got a phone call the other day from the manager of the bank that holds a good chunk of savings in a cd/money market fund. The Mgr. refused to TALK to me, claiming he would only speak to dh, since dh is the sole account holder (fool). Anyways, i forgot to tell dh to call the bank to see what the call was about and last night I kept tossing and turning thinking ***maybe*** someone got a bogus default judgment against DH and was seizing the account. Turns out they just wanted to know if dh (WE) were going to renew the terms.
