3rd party collection on my credit card debt
I was disabled in march 2006 ,still waiting for a disability hearing . After sending out a letter of explanation and doctors reports to the 5 credit cards I was using . One of them decided to turn my account over for collection. I have never denied that I owe the debt , But until I receive some type of disability I have no Income at all and have no asset's. In my letter I stated that my Intentions were to pay all 5 credit cards off when My disability was established , all 5 credit cards total owed was 3,000 dollars. One of the cards turned my account over to a collection agency from which I received a summons in Dec. 2008 ,In that summons I was told that I needed to respond to said attorney within 20 days . I called them the same day I received the summons . I said that I was responding to the summons and wanted to explain my situation. I was then told that our conversation would be recorded for collection purposes to which I agreed .Thinking that what I had done would be sufficient . Today Feb.7th I received a judgment in the mail , telling me that because I didn't serve the plaintiff's attorney with a written answer to their complaint a judgment was being served . I called said attorney to the plaintiff to ask about this judgment .She said that she apologized for the misunderstanding as to what I needed to actually do to stop the judgment . But after all she represented the plaintiff not me and that if I didn't understand the requirements that perhaps I should ask a neutral attorney . My Question Is what can I expect to happen , Can they do anything to my family or what should I expect to happen . I don't believe that my hardship was my families or my fault and future harassment from this attorney will only compromise my health further . WHAT TO DO ?