Okay, I received our minivan in my divorce in feb 04' along with responsibility of it, I kept aprox 1 year before the transmission went out & I had no $ to fix it and couldn't pay for it any longer, I returned it to the bank.

It has been 2 yrs and last week I was served with summons to answer a lawsuit I guess for payment of the van which is over $13,000!! I have to answer w/i 30 days and I don't have the $ to hire a private attorney, so I contacted legal aid, they wouldn't accept my case, so now I'm helpless..

I contacted a few lawyers, they told me to contact the law firm for a settlement offer and file a answer stating I couldn't afford to pay for the van and thus the reason it was returned.. and I still can't afford it.

I then called the law office and the settlement offer was $9300.00, $155/mo for 5 years! I can't swing that bill... hell, my bills are past due now!

I am remarried and I stay @ home with our 3 young kids and my primary concern is that they not be able to garnish my account or place liens on anything... I was advised to contact me car lien holder to see if there was a lien and luckily I found out they don't accept 2nd liens on their loans! *lucky for me on that one* The house is not in my name, nor am I on it and I own nothing else. I have no money in my account so they can't get me there either.

The only thing I have in my name is the child support debit card and I'm pretty sure they cannot take my child support $.. or at least I hope not!

My questions are:
1. should I hire a lawyer?--a parallegal atually told me the judgement would be what it is and a lawyer really wans't going to be able to help... just take my $ I don't have..

2. What can they do if I have no $ or property?

3. can they touch the c.s money?

4. Should I file an answer w/o an attorney?

5. What should I do?

Thanks! I'm in Georgia if it matters

Ok, what happened, was you returned it to the bank, the bank sold it at auction getting a fraction of its value. They may have first gone after your ex, hence the delay, but now they are going after you. If you look through the threads here, you will see many threads advising what to do.

You do first need to file your Notice to Defend, then go on from there.

The van broke down and sat in my yard for about 2 weeks, I tried to round the money to have fixed, but unable to do so. When I turned it back in, they towed it to S. Carolina from Ga to an auction and sold it for under $2,000... to me, that was a ripoff on my end, the van was a 2000, fully loaded with every available option from Chevrolet... mint condition other than needing transmission... I just didn't have $.

I was served with a summons in my county and the law office representing the bank informed me that my ex was served in his county also! He works FT, same job for 5 years..

They also told me that the ex faxed a copy of the divorce decree where judge gave me responsibility of van, will that get the ex off?

Well, I've been told different things about that. The divorce decree is not binding on the creditor. But they may at least try to collect from you first.

If they can't, they may go after him and then he will have to sue you under the terms of the decree.

But if I have nothing to give them, I still have nothing to give him either.. will this matter?

It won't stop them from getting a judgement against you and affecting your credit.