I have been served a summons by first class mail of a lawsuit against me by an asset collection agency on behalf of a credit card company. The asset company has purchased the debt,in an amount just over $4000. My question is how do I proceed as I have never been sued before. I am aware that hiring a lawyer is probably the best option, but I am not sure I can afford one. The summons mentions that I have21 days to file a written answer with the court. If I am currently undergoing hardship how do I respond, and to which court as the court of origin is not the court issuing the summons. I would appreciate any help in this matter, or information would be appreciated.

They are betting on the chance you are NOT going to respond so they can get a default judgement against you. I know someone who received one YEARS ago, they contacted a lawyer, the lawyer responded and filed for a jury trial... the company doing the suing NEVER filed back and it's still waiting for their day in court. They have huge ground to counter sue since the company suing lied and turned around and SOLD the account to someone else shortly after the ones being sued responded.

I would look up budhibbs.com a lot of good info to start research with. And will help you start going from there. Will also tell you what type of attorney to look for... I believe an NACA attorney? Might need to double check that.

Trust me, you will want to learn as much as you can about this. When helping out my friend, they were too paralized with fear to research it, but when I started uncovering the truth about the schemes they started to breath again... There is hope, you have more rights then you realise and it's very likely they have already been violated!

I have been served a summons by first class mail of a lawsuit against me by an asset collection agency on behalf of a credit card company. The asset company has purchased the debt,in an amount just over $4000. My question is how do I proceed as I have never been sued before. I am aware that hiring a lawyer is probably the best option, but I am not sure I can afford one. The summons mentions that I have21 days to file a written answer with the court. If I am currently undergoing hardship how do I respond, and to which court as the court of origin is not the court issuing the summons. I would appreciate any help in this matter, or information would be appreciated.


To begin with, you can't be legally served ONLY by mail unless they have a Court order to do so, which I strongly doubt.

Is it possible the Summons was either affixed to your door or someone in your household was personally served on your behalf and this is the follow up to perfect service?

Is the debt within the statute to collect in your State - they have to file the papers with the Court within a certain time frame or they cannot collect using the Courts. That would be your response/answer - the debt is out of Statute. Can't tell without more info. Also I would argue bad service.

If the summons is legitimate you MUST respond or they will get a default Judgment.

I would make sure this is a legal Summons and not some Summons-looking document which I've known collection agencies to use.