Situation:
Massive Credit Card Debt; Recent Defaults; No Income; No Assets, Maine Residence.

Questions:
1. What is the most common amount of time between a credit card default and a lawsuit?

2. What are the possible consequences of receiving a Default Judgment? [Not going to lawsuit court summons; contempt of court]

3. If "Contempt" is the courts judgment, is incarceration possible? [If yes, in which states?]

4. If one were to attend their court summons for defaulted credit card debt, and the debtor made it clear that they were unable to pay at all, what would be the most likely outcome?

5. Is anyone affiliated with the defaulted credit card debtor at any risk? [ie. Friends, family; not including co-signers]

6. Is there any legal way to force credit card companies to stop harassing the employer listed on the original application?

7. What could be considered to be fraud, regarding the original credit card application?

8. When would anything perceived as fraudulent be addressed, regarding the default, lawsuit & judgment process?

Any response(s) would be greatly appreciated.

I live in California and had $16.5K of credit card debt distributed between 4 cards with Providian having 3 and Bank of America the fourth. I was served a summons and failed to appear. A judgement has been rendered against me in my understanding. It took them, I don't have exact figures here, but I would say a year or two to do the judgement. Before they do judgement they send it out to collection agencies. You can tell those letters.. well.. they aren't in legal format and they don't say they are lawyers, in contrast to what happens next. They have to serve you in person.

I am not a lawyer, I am a schizophrenic age 43 who has been on Social Security for most of his adult life, since about 25. The events I describe happened maybe 4-5 years ago. I have not been arrested. I have found that they don't touch my bank account, but that might be because there is a minimum amount in the bank required for them to legally do so. I only receive letters from "lawyers in the business of debt collection" and others from the government for my student loans. I found out that they can garnish my wages. The lawyers send me letters about my jobs. I am not working right now, I am trying to finish my second master's degree. I was working as a substitute in Oakland when I got garnished. According to payroll, they could only take any wages above $800 a month, i.e. I was assured I could keep the first $800 of my monthly wage. After that, there was some computer program that calculated the garnishment that the payroll lady didn't understand.

I "transferred" or whatever to the San Francisco school district, but didn't end up working that much. I never made more than $800 in any months I worked there (btw-- more accurately in the Oakland situation the pay was bi-weekly so that it was $400 per pay period). I received a legal letter informing me that the debt collectors knew about my job change.

My take on failing to appear for these civil matters just means you lose the case, but I am not a lawyer, I have no idea if that is correct. As I said, at this point this happened to me 4-5 years ago and the only thing that changes is the stationaries of the various collection agencies that buy the previous collection agencies. Also they send interesting letters that give dollar amounts precise to the cent about how you owe $X but if you pay us ~$X*0.6 or so, you can get rid of the debt. These letters keep coming.

I saw on 60 Minutes about how there are jerky folks in the debt collection agencies. THere was one guy who surprisingly got me on the phone (I try not to answer. I don't know what that means legally, but it has never had any ramifications for me other than garnishment I guess--but I am what you call "no asset." ).

He would say "You owe this money."

I said, "I don't have it."

He shot back, "Are YOU REFUSING to PAY this DEBT??"

I always hung up on him at that point. 60 Minutes said folk like this are the ones getting prosecuted.

There is a lot of fair warning about the judgement. YOu get a bunch of different letters from lawyers (as opposed to collection agencies) that tell you what is happening. When a guy knocks on your door, and you are fool enough to answer the door to a stranger like I was, they give you a paper to appear in court, and that was probably a month or more in advance, I am not sure but of course it explains it clearly in the letter when the court date is. At that point you know there is a judgement about to happen. If you don't show up, you will lose the case.

I might be mistaken about the amount of time it takes for judgement, it might even be as long as 3-4 years. I think judgements depend on the balance of the credit card. Nolo press

Lawyers, Legal Forms, Law Books, Legal Software, and Free Information - Nolo (http://www.nolo.com/)

Books I have on bankruptcy told me about the "do nothing" method. It was a method I have employed for many years. WHen I was getting my bachelor's degree, I had a few cards, and when I couldn't pay, well at the time I lived in Madison, WI, and then I graduated, spent a number of months with my parents in Green Bay, WI, and then drove to Berkeley, CA, and I have lived in CA ever since. Those old debts from Madison just disappeared, and Citibank even offered me new cards (I am pretty sure I defaulted on them--that was fairly memorable).

I think if cards are <~$2000 it is not going to be worth their while to do judgements. They just send it off to collections, and I suspect there might be a 7 year statute of limitations or something, but again, I am not a lawyer, I have no idea of that is factual. For my $6000 and $7000 limit Providian cards I am pretty sure they sent those off to lawyers.. at least one of them. I also had a $2500 limit Providian and I am a little unclear on what is happening to that. Providian got bought out a few years back, and I wonder how that affects things. I defaulted on the cards stepwise, so maybe the $7000 I quit paying.. well.. I am pretty sure I stuck with the $2500 one longer, so that process is lagging behind. I am not sure if that one is going to judgement, but I know I never got any judgements from any of the cards from Madison, they were all less than $1000. Again, I have no idea if my theories are correct, maybe they just couldn't serve me, I only know that I got a judgement from Providian, and I am pretty sure it has only been collection for any of the $1000 and down cards.

THIS IS HOMEWORK, WHICH "WE" DON'T DO -

That being said, Kayve, you haven't been arrested because you can't be imprisoned for debt.

We take pride in our answers on the legal boards - your "answer" is full of what you think, how you feel, how things should work, and you are incorrect in several of those aspects or else you cannot interpret the law.

Please - make certain what you are posting is accurate or you are helping no one.

This is not a chat room or message board and much of what you have posted has nothing to do with anything, including the question at hand.

1. What is the most common amount of time between a credit card default and a lawsuit?

When they get around to it, providing it's within the SOL.

2. What are the possible consequences of receiving a Default Judgment? [Not going to lawsuit court summons; contempt of court]

A judgment against you is the consequence. A judgment is not the same as being ordered by a court to pay (which doesn't happen). Failing to answer a summons, or to pay the resulting judgment, does not equal contempt of court.
3. If "Contempt" is the courts judgment, is incarceration possible? [If yes, in which states?]
No.

4. If one were to attend their court summons for defaulted credit card debt, and the debtor made it clear that they were unable to pay at all, what would be the most likely outcome?

The summons doesn't normally set a hearing date; it requires you to file a written answer within a certain time and if you fail to do so a judgment will be entered. Of somehow a hearing is scheduled in the summons, whether or not you can pay is not normally the issue. It doesn't matter at all. The issue is whether you owe the debt.

5. Is anyone affiliated with the defaulted credit card debtor at any risk? [ie. Friends, family; not including co-signers]

No. In some very few jurisdictions, spouses may have some exposure, but they would have to be named in the summons.

6. Is there any legal way to force credit card companies to stop harassing the employer listed on the original application?

What specific kind of harassment are we talking about?

7. What could be considered to be fraud, regarding the original credit card application?

Putting an intentionally inaccurate financial statement in the credit application would be one example.

8. When would anything perceived as fraudulent be addressed, regarding the default, lawsuit & judgment process?

If the debtor attempts to get the debt discharged in bankruptcy, fraud may be a basis for denial of discharge. Alternatively, in theory, criminal charges could be considered.

I think you just helped someone get a passing grade.

I reviewed my post, and I don't see anything about "feeling." Perhaps my discussion of 60 Minutes was a tiny bit "what should be," however, in my recollection, there were cases where the legal system agreed with me, i.e. some of these folks WERE confronted with some sort of legal action.

CBS Evening News Video - Abusive Debt Collectors - CBS.com (http://www.cbs.com/cbs_evening_news/video/?play=true&pid=jRqiwK2EHFMme3tbYslWwm1pZ7BTy9Ez)

I reviewed my post, and I don't see anything about "feeling." Perhaps my discussion of 60 Minutes was a tiny bit "what should be," however, in my recollection, there were cases where the legal system agreed with me, i.e. some of these folks WERE confronted with some sort of legal action.

CBS Evening News Video - Abusive Debt Collectors - CBS.com (http://www.cbs.com/cbs_evening_news/video/?play=true&pid=jRqiwK2EHFMme3tbYslWwm1pZ7BTy9Ez)



You and I disagree - post the law instead of TV site and see if we agree then.

I think you just helped someone get a passing grade.

I thnk you may be right.

Oh well.