I owe a credit card company 5K. They are suing me but I have no money. What can the judge do to me? Will I go to jail?

While we are only experts in the Ontario Small Claims Court we are, nevertheless, unaware of any American or Canadian jurisdiction that jails debtors. (Such a practice did exist in 19th century England but society has progressed beyond it.)

With all that being said, a judgment debtor in Ontario's Small Claims Court can be jailed if he or she fails to attend a debtor's examination AND a subsequent contempt hearing. The warrant, however, is issued for contempt of court and not failure to pay a debt.

We believe that some other Canadian provinces have a similar practice. We have no knowledge if such a practice exists in any American state. We recommend you call your local Small Claims Court or legal clinic for more information.

Aside from the above, the worst case scenario for a judgment debtor is to be on the receiving end of enforcement proceedings (ie. Garnishment of wages or seizure and sale of personal property). If you can work out a repayment scheme with the creditor now that would be best. Alternately, you may want to consider credit counselling or bankruptcy.

Although I would love to be able to send some of my renters to jail for not paying me, NO, there has not been debtors prisons for 100's of years.
Now some crooked collection agency will threaten you with it, but you can't be.

They can issue a judgement, garnish part of your pay check, take the money out of your bank account

I owe a credit card company 5K. they are suing me but I have no money. what can the judge do to me? will i go to jail?
Who told you this? Was it the collection agency? Probably trying to scare you into paying what little you can. Just tell you have no money, so suing you will only because them mor money they will never get.

Putting you in Jail would kind of defeat the purpose, would it not?

No, you can't go to jail. The most likely scenario would be they would get a court to sanction your paycheck... do not pay them any money unless its court ordered, I made a huge mistake.

Going back to the Jail thing. Technically, you'd be better off in Jail, as if they allowed you to get work release, and continue to work your current job/hours, you'd be living expense free, eating for free, and wouldn't have utilities, and all of your paycheck could go to the Creditor. I think this is there dream come true if they could throw people in jail that owed them money!!