Today a summons was delivered to my door stating I had 20 days to send a written response to the lawsuit filed against me. Note that about a week before getting the summons, I had already contacted the collection agency/creditor and made payment arrangements to pay the credit card bill, which they agreed to do. They told me that a letter from their attorney would be forthcoming and for me to just sign off on it when I receive it, and mail back. I am sending my written response back to the court, but do I need to send a copy to the debt collector's attorney ( which is what the summons states to do), being that I' m going to be getting the attorney's letter to sign off on anyway? Also, will I need to appear in court... because it doesn't say that I have to appear? Please help! Thank you.

You want to appear in court, if you don't, they will not mention any agreement and they will get a default judgement so they can just take your money.

I doubt your agreement with them is in writing ?

This is a common trick, and also protects them, if at any time you are one day late paying them, they already have a judgement to use against you

Even though you have a payment arrangement, they still may go ahead with the suit and want to obtain a judgment. This way, if you ever renege on the payment arrangement, they don't have to reinstate the suit and can just seize assets or garnish your salary.

And frankly, there isn't a thing you can do about it. Unless you have agreed to a settlement where you pay in full, you have admitted the debt and a court is going to award them a judgment.

What you need to do is make sure that you have the settlement IN WRITING and include that they will not use the judgment unless you miss a payment.

And yes, you NEVER skip a court hearing.