I Received A Summons Please Help!

I don't have much litigation experience so I can't really give you any helpful suggestions. But answering the following questions might help us help you:

1) What state is this in?
2) When was your last payment to this account?

So take a deep breath, relax, and don't panic. You do need to respond, but responding panicked isn't a good idea. Also, please turn off your caps lock key.

 

You should find out if this is actually Chase or someone claiming to be an assignee.

If you don't respond properly, the other side will almost surely seek a default judgment against you.

This is not a defense. It may be useful in settlement negotiations.

Usually a Summons and Complaint provide you with some idea of how you are supposed to respond. An Appearance is probably a good idea since this means that the other side and the Court will send you materials they are sending each other, thus you'll have some idea of what is going on.

An Answer puts the Complaint in play by responding to it, avoiding the default. Generally this will slow them down, perhaps provoke discovery, etc., and then later they'll get around to their summary judgment attempt.

This will depend on what you've done. If you've done nothing, she'll probably give the Plaintiff a default judgment.

Most people do this by not showing up. Most often this results in a default judgment if they didn't respond to the Complaint, or a Summary Judgment if they did.

 

Along with what Bob aptly stated, you may consider retaining an attorney.

 

What kind of services can an attorney provide to a person who is in such dire financial straits as this poster seems to be in?

 

I am being sued by someone who claims to be working for Chase but I think he might be a 3rd party collector. Chase charged off my account recently, and although he works from Chase Legal Dept. I suspect he's not all that he claims to be.
I wrote to Chase asking for validation (can't hurt, right?) and they never responded. I sent a copy of that letter & return receipt to this attorney to see what will happen. He has received it, but no response yet.
He wins a lot of suits by default, so I'm certainly going to show up. I haven't received a summons yet because I tried to work out a payment plan with them that I just can't adhere to. The way I found out about the lawsuit was that a local "Financial Company" sent me the info to see if I wanted their help.
Has anyone else had this experience with JPMorgan Chase?

I live in CA - I think the OC is bound by the Rosenthal Act to comply with a request for validation, right?

 

I don't mean to be rude here but it seems you aren't very well prepared to meet what you may have to face in the near future.

Yes, I think you are correct about the Rosenthal Act. So you will have a state cause of action against the creditor. But what is the penalty for the violation they have committed? You need to know the answer to that question and what to do about any violations they may have committed.

Now then, you say you have not received a summons yet because you tried to work out a settlement with them. I can assure you that is not why you haven't been served yet. The summons most likely won't be much longer in getting there.

And you say you are going to show up so they don't get a default judgment. Showing up in court isn't likely to keep them from getting a default judgment. You are lucky that you have posted here before getting served so you have a chance of getting properly prepared for court. The first thing you need to do is go to the clerk of the court and ask for a copy of all the paperwork in the judgment file and a copy of any required court response forms.
California has what is called a simplified court system. It is simplified.........for the plaintiff but it is a nightmare for the defendants. It almost guarantees an easy win for plaintiffs because the way it is set up leads defendants to believe that filling it out will do them some good but it won't. Defendants must use their form to start with but it needs to be amplified greatly to get anywhere. Defendants need to add several documents to their filing. They also need to know whether they are in small claims court or in district court and what the civil rules of procedure are in the court they are being sued in. Small claims is very different than district courts and have their own special rules which are definitely not defendant friendly.

You need to get all your paperwork put together and filed now rather than sitting there happily waiting to get hit over the head with that summons. Doing so can give you an important time line advantage over the plaintiff. Wait for the summons and you can be way behind the curve without much chance of ever being able to catch up.

If the attorney has ever contacted you prior to filing suit on you and that contact was less than 30 days ago then you need to get a validation letter off to the attorney now before you run out of time. If the attorney has never contacted you then you need to wait for that summons to mail the attorney a validation letter even though you may have already responded to the summons and complaint. If you follow the links in my signature line you can learn what you need to prepare and file but of course you won't find out how to do it because if I told you how to do those things then I might be guilty of unauthorized practice of law because I'm not an attorney so I can't give legal advice. Telling you that you need to go get the proper forms from the clerk of the court isn't giving you legal advice. Telling you that you need to add certain other forms and documents isn't giving you legal advice. That's just educating you a bit.

To show you the difference, there is an attorney named Frederick Graves who lives in Florida and has a sort of club structure called jurisdictionary. He sells a set of 4 CD's which are really great. They give you lots of videos and audios which tell you all about the court system and what you need to do to win in court without lawyers. The set of CDs cost about $250 but guess what. They tell you what to do but not how to do it because while he can teach you what to do without giving out legal advice but if he told you how to do it then he might be in danger of getting hit with a charge of unauthorized practice of law because he isn't licensed in any state other than Florida. If you call him up he will gladly talk to you but he still won't tell you how to do anything. He will tell you to go hire a lawyer for that.

I bought his CDs years ago and yes, they did teach me a great deal but I sure am glad I didn't have to use them to figure out how to actually win in court without lawyers. I just bought them to learn what I could, not because I had a case against me that I had to defend.

As a result of my having bought his CDs I now have a great relationship with that man but I still can't get any legal advice from him even in a private phone call. So follow all the links in my sig line and beyond and you will learn a great deal. Probably far more than you will learn from buying Dr. Graves cds but I still can't give you legal advice because I'm not an attorney and even if I were I probably wouldn't be authorized to practice law in your state and therefore couldn't be your attorney.