Hi there - I am hoping that someone could give me a little advice, as I am rather confused at the moment. I have been battling with Midland Credit for a year and a half or so over a credit card I had that was cancelled which had a balance of around $1500. Midland Credit have taken over the account, and I attempted to pay off the debt for awhile. After some financial hardships I went through forced me to stop paying them on a monthly basis, they eventually sent the account to their lawyers, Messerli & Kramer. I tried talking to their lawyers, who now added $1000 in attorneys fees to the account, about paying the bill monthly. The minimum amount they wanted was far too much for me (3 times that of Midland Credit), so they said they'd take me to court to get payment. Months pass, nothing happens. Now a deputy shows up at my door last week with what looks to be like a District Court document which says "YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED..." with NO court file number or anything of the like that I can see. It simply says I must answer the plaintiff within 20 days or judgment could be taken against me. Well, the question is, how do I go about answering them? There are no forms to fill out that were included. I went to the General Rules and Practices website for the State of Minnesota to look for forms that might help for civil cases, but the forms were for the attorneys to fill out, not me. I'm highly confused. Does anyone have any advice that might help? I honestly cannot afford a lawyer. Are they even following correct procedures? Thank you, and any help is very much appreciated.
I would go to your local court and pull the file to see what documents were filed vs what was served upon you. that may give you a further understanding of their intention to get a judgment against you. you can ask a lawyer a free legal question in your state at lawguru.com there are also court facilitators or legal clinics that may be able to advise you.
Fun is right - check and see if there is truly a case against you. If there is, file and answer and others here with more knowledge on judgments will give you more advice. HOWEVER.... If there is NOT a case against you, this is a violation. If there is NOT a case against you, you first IMMEDIATELY write them via CRRR and request that they validate the ALLEGED debt. Look over the sample letters if you haven't already.
Thank you both for the timely advice. I'm going to the court house on Tuesday to see whether anything was actually filed against me. The absence of any court file number seems very suspicious.
If a deputy showed up and handed you the summons, i think it may be real. Deputys are not in the business of running around handing out phony legal documents.
go to the court house and ask the clerk for help in preparing an "answer" to the summons....in general you want to deny everything other than basic info like name, address, etc.
