I am being sued by a credit card company for a debt owed.

I received a court summons and was told that I need to file a written response to this summons within in 21 days.

How would I write, or what should I include in, a response to a court summons regarding an unsecured debt?

Any help would be appreciated as I have never been through this process before.

To begin with, what is your defense? (Inabililty to pay is not a defense.)

This question has been asked and answered hundreds of times. Have you used the AMHD search feature to find similar questions and answers?

I have searched this site, however was unable to find something specific in terms of what wording to use to respond to this summons.

I understanding that inability to pay is not a response.

I was always on time with my payments and never missed one. I made more than monthly minimum, however became too overwhelmed since I was not getting anywhere. I attempted to work with the credit card company to reduce interest rates and they weren't able to assist me.

I started working with a debt settlement company in Feb of 2009 who advised us not to pay the credit card and just make monthly payments to them. This is when my payments became delinquent with the credit card company on the advice of the debt settlement company. In return, they would work with the company to make a settlement. The settlement company is confident that they will be able to reach an agreement prior to a court hearing, however we still need to respond to the court.

I have the document needed to respond to the summons. I guess I am asking if the response needs to be in letter form or numbered like the documents I received in the summons. Do I need an attorney to respond or can we do it ourselves. Are they any examples of other people's responses anywhere that you could provide a link to??