Have a judgment against me and an going to a hearing today because I filed a motion to vacate the judgment.. The way I understand it, the original court date was to be in June, 08. I was out of town. Then, I got notice for a hearing on Oct. 1, 08.. I called the clerk to ask if I needed to be there, I was set to travel. Clerk said no. Last month I get a letter that I owe $1000 and how I should pay the sheriffs officer etc. Now, today, I am going to try to have this vacated. Should I not succeed, is there any other way to appeal. I am sure I can beat this, (Pressler and Pressler) given the opportunity to state my case. The only evidence they provided was some sort of computer generated stuff from 2003. Never told me when the account was charged off, when last payment was. I am not sure it was even mine, and there was no contract, no terms, no point of sale receipts, nothing.. Any suggestions?
It doesn't matter what they did or did not provide as evidence, simply because you didn't show up to contest it. Were you served? Why weren't you there in June?
I was working out of town. I frequently get called out last minute. I called the court to change date, they told me to contact plaintiff. Not surprisingly, they did not respond to me.. Is there any appeal process to this?
The chances of getting a judgment vacated are about as slim as the paper the request is written on. Even if you had shown up for court your chances of beating the case were about the same. I'm sorry to have to sound so harsh and glum but the facts are the facts. In order to have any realistic chance of defeating a judgment one must have a combination of winning factors and know how to present them to the court. Granted that some judges are far more lenient than others and will let a pro se litigant get away with things that a lawyer wouldn't even try to get away with, but they aren't likely to be sympathetic towards someone who doesn't even show up for court then shows up months later begging for mercy. Regardless of my assessment of your chances to get the judgment vacated, I do wish you the best of luck.
I'm with Capone - not being harsh, but most judges aren't going to have much sympathy for a no show that obviously knew of the court date. Your best hope is that plaintiff's attorney doesn't show up...
Because you were working is not a valid excuse most judge's consider that flipping off the court and will be very harsh.Sorry i didn't mean to be harsh but they'll already have a dimm view of you.
Being out-of-town is a legitimate excuse for not showing up. The mistake that was made was in not petitioning the court for a continuance in advance or one to set aside the judgment at the absolute first opportunity after the missed court date. Once made, that omission is not likely sufficient to set aside the judgment on its own, as has been noted. The lesson is to do everything of a procedural nature in writing and in a timely fashion, addressed to the proper recipient. If the recipient is other than the Court, the Court should receive a copy of the document.
