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mrw6567 · Jan 28, 2012, 05:01 PM

HELLO,

Last night my FiancŽ answered the door to a lady standing there and as I came out of the room, due to the barking dog, she said its for you. I greet the lady and she hands me some papers and says sign here, (I already knew what it was) I signed her sheet and took the documents. It's a citation from precinct 4 in my county here in Texas stating that I'm being sued. My first question is it says I need to "answer" or show up in court before the expiration of ten days the Monday following the issuance of the citation. So, I'm not sure what that means considering the document was issued January 21st and I received it at 9:30pm Frday January 27th? My next question is what is the best way to handle this, I know the debtis valid and am willing to pay it but do not want to get an unfair deal due to ignorance? I'm very concerned and don't want to miss the court date and allow them to determin things for me.

ScottGem · Jan 28, 2012, 06:06 PM

Why have you let it go so far as a suit? If you are willing to pay, why didn't you try to work something out beforehand?

If I were you the first thing I would do is contact the creditor and try to work out a settlement. If you can't work out a settlement then go down to court before the deadline and see what will happen. If the debt is valid, then they will get a judgment and proceed to try and collect on it.

mrw6567 · Jan 28, 2012, 07:09 PM

Actually, I have made contact with them to arrange payment and they want the full amount in one payment which I cannot do. Unfortunately its come to this.

ScottGem · Jan 28, 2012, 07:13 PM

So they will get a judgment and attach your bank account and/or garnish your salary.

Fr_Chuck · Jan 28, 2012, 07:22 PM

You are not going to get a fair day ( you will get a legal deal) now. Long ago was the time to be sure you were making payments each month. So during the past 6 months or last 12 months have you been sending them anything ? That is good to take to court to prove you were trying, they still may win but good to show you were trying

But now they will get to add legal fees, court fees and other fees on top of what you did owe. So expect what you owed to be increased by 100's of dollars.

Once they get a jugement in most places they can garnish you pay taking about 25 percent of your paycheck before you get it. That is why trying to pay before was so important.

mrw6567 · Jan 28, 2012, 07:45 PM

I live in Texas, they can't garnish my wages.

mrw6567 · Jan 28, 2012, 07:47 PM

Also, as I stated BEFORE, I did attempt to pay before but they did not like the terms. Im not going to beg them to take my money. They didn't want any arrangement other than me paying the full amount. Which as I said BEFORE, I could not do.

ScottGem · Jan 28, 2012, 07:48 PM

Ok, but they can attach bank accounts or other assets.

AK lawyer · Jan 28, 2012, 08:58 PM

Originally Posted by mrw6567

... it says I need to "answer" or show up in court before the expiration of ten days the monday following the issuance of the citation. ...

I suspect that's not, word-for-word, what it says exactly. The words "expiration of ten days the monday following ..." are not proper English. Are you sure it doesn't say something like "expiration of ten days from the Monday following... "? Since the ussuance of the "citation" was January 21st, the followiing Monday would be the 23rd, and February 2nd would be when you must answer it by.

It's also a suspicious time window in the abstract. What if you were served on February 1st. That would require you to still answer on the next day. Strange indeed.