What to Do if you have been Served a Summons to a Credit Card Lawsuit

You come home from work after a horrible day, sit in your recliner, put your feet up and just as your starting to nod off the door bell starts ringing. You answer the door and a scruffy looking guys serves you papers. You are being sued for that credit card you defaulted on 2 years ago. Good thing the day is almost over because this was the icing on the cake.

The credit card lawsuit is from a company called LVNV Funding LLC, one of the largest debt buyers in the country. There are thousands of people each day that live this nightmare. If you take my first piece of advice you will gain control over your situation and not lose sleep if this happens to you tomorrow.

FIRST PIECE OF ADVICE: ANSWER THE SUMMONS IMMEDIATELY, I'll TELL YOU HOW BELOW!

Chances are you are not being sued directly from the credit card company that you originally defaulted with but a junk debt buyer that bought your debt for pennies on the dollar. That means if you owe the original creditor $5000 they may have bought it for $300 OR LESS.

Companies like LVNV Funding LLC are counting on you to not answer the summons so that they can get a default judgement against you!

Most people that get sued are scared as hell and don't show up to court. Most also don't hire an attorney because they don't have the extra cash lying around or they might have paid their credit card bill to begin with.......

There are many people that have defaulted on their credit cards due to divorce, losing their job, low unemployment benefits, and other personal reasons. The problem with throwing your hands in the air and allowing a default judgement is that LVNV Funding LLC as the winner of the judgement can potentially GARNISH YOUR WAGES. Also, depending on what state you are in the judgement could stay on your credit report for 10 years.

You have two choices when you are sued. You can defend yourself Pro Se or hire an attorney that specializes in defending people in credit card lawsuits. Generally, these lawyers go by the term "Consumer Lawyer".

Many of these attorneys will take your case on a fixed cost basis rather than an hourly basis because they are so confident in their abilities to beat the junk debt buyers.

The reason they are so confident is that often the debt buyers like LVNV Funding LLC will have insufficient evidence in court to prove that the debt is yours.

When these junk debt buyers buy the debt, they are often given very scant evidence of the debt from the original creditor. It is for this reason that many attorneys can use the laws to your benefit.

You typically only have about 20 days to answer your credit card lawsuit summons. In the summons, the debtor or debt buyer will make a complaint that states certain assumptions.

They will often list the debt in the complaint with a dollar amount and just the name of the credit card you defaulted on. Often years will have passed since people defaulted on the card and can't even remember the name of the company. Now you have a complaint that lists you as the purported credit card defaulter, a dollar amount, and just the name of the credit card.

If someone sent you a letter in the mail stating you owe $5000 and showed no proof of the debt, you would tell them where to shove it. The first step in that process is answering the complaint.

If they did not list an account number on the complaint, you can very easily respond to the summons with your "answer" by stating you can not say whether that debt is your since no account number was listed. If there is no account number, how would you know the debt is truly yours. PROVE IT!

Also, this LVNV Funding LLC states in the complaint that they have been assigned this debt. You did not take out the card with them and how do you know they were truly assigned this debt unless you have them --PROVE IT!

Answering the complaint is easy. Google search "answer complaint credit card lawsuit" and find a generic, sample answer form and make one up on your own at no cost. You need to deny that the credit card is yours since you have no proof that is truly yours based on the complaints lack of acount #'s. I don't have space to do a full sample, but it is fairly easy to find a generic answer online and copy/paste with your appropriate info.

You now need to go to the courthouse and file the answer with a "certificate of service"(again very simple to google for sample) with the clerks office. Have them stamp your copy and the one you will be sending to LVNV Funding or their local attorney by certified mail. Keep copies of everything and proof of your certified return receipt requested.

You have now bought yourself some breathing room and done something only about 3% of people actually do. You'll get a confirmation from the court indicating a pretrial conference for discovery where you can meet the opposing attorney, usually it will be a few months down the road.

By taking this action, you are showing LVNV Funding or whoever is suing you, that you will not go down without a fight. In fact, you are now costing them money since they have to hire an attorney to represent them in court-- which eats into their profit.

Often, you will be sued for a debt which you defaulted on many years ago. Each state has a statue of limitations (SOL) which does not allow a company to legally collect on a debt after the SOL has expired, but they can still sue for it and if you don't answer the complaint within the 20 days, a default judgement can still be issued for the debt even past the SOL. Since you did not put a defense that the debt is past the SOL, they will be able to collect on the judgement.

If you receive a summons for an old debt, google search the SOL for your state on credit card debt. If it is past the SOL, let that be known on the answer and the opposing attorney might not even go forward with the case.

In my next Hub, I will discuss what to do for Discovery and potential options with consumer lawyers if you don't feel comfortable in court.

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney so please do your own research or consult with an attorney. I just am trying to raise awareness to the issue and get the reader to take the action in order to not let the debtor get a default judgement without a fight.