I received a letter from an attorney's office in the mail today entitled "Notice of Praecipe to enter judgement by default." I tried to contact this same company back in April about making payment arrangements with them and heard or received nothing from them until this notice today.

I am not in a position to repay the amount in full and can only make small payments. My husband is out of work and we are trying to get by on my income...

What can they do to me at this point?

Was there a court date that you didn't show up for?

Default judgment means you are being sued, and failed to show up for the court date or hearing, or you didn't answer the request from the Attorney's office in the time allowed.

Depending on what else it says, you may be able to respond, and request a new hearing, without access to the entire letter, it is hard to say.

Hello HaBrown

Did you receive anything about a court date? Before that there had to have been many letters calls etc How old is the debt? If a default judgement is entered it is only a matter of time before they will go after bank accounts wages etc. What else does the letter say?

The attorneys representing the debtor are notifying you that they are asking the court for a default judgment to be entered against you for failure to respond to their attempts to collect on the debt. If the court grants the request for default and enters a judgment against you, the next step will be garnishment of your wages and your bank accounts could possibly be frozen and money taken from them to pay the debt. I would suggest that you contact the attorney that sent you that letter a.s.a.p. and ask him if there is any way that he will work with you to set up some kind of payment schedule (even just $10 a month or whatever you can afford). Usually, as long as you are willing to make some kind of regular payment, they will work with you. Ignoring them is the worst thing you can do. Also, think about talking to a credit counselor.

File notice with the court of Intent to Defend. Once that is done, send a discovery notice to the attorney request the documents you need to defnd against the alleged claim. Like the Original contract you signed to compare signatures, date of last payment, etc. Has the Statue of limtation expired on this alleged debt.

Thanks for all of the advice. No, I did not receive a court date. Nor did I miss one. I received a letter stating they were going to sue me. I did not send the court a defense, I sent the attorney's office a letter saying I wanted to make arrangements. They never acknowledged this letter.