Expert: Creditwrench - 5/26/2008

Question
QUESTION: I have to go to a pretrial hearing on 8/21/08 in Palm Bch Florida what do I need to bring with me, cant afford a lawyer, my circumstances stem from my spouse having a bout with cancer which led me to default on credit cards, I tried to make arrangements with credit company but my payments I'm told where unacceptable because I counldn't afford to send more than 25.00 dollars to each, he colllects SS but not enough to cover living expenses, I only make $800.00 a month , what do I need to take to court with me, what do you think will happen

ANSWER:    
I have to go to a pretrial hearing on 8/21/08 in Palm Bch Florida what do I need to bring with me, cant afford a lawyer, my circumstances stem from my spouse having a bout with cancer which led me to default on credit cards, I tried to make arrangements with credit company but my payments I'm told where unacceptable because I counldn't afford to send more than 25.00 dollars to each, he colllects SS but not enough to cover living expenses, I only make $800.00 a month , what do I need to take to court with me, what do you think will happen.
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Just like most folks who have no experience in dealing with such situations, you are looking at it from entirely the wrong viewpoint.

Your first mistake in looking at the situation is that you owe the debt, you know that you owe the debt and you know that you can't afford to pay it. The way you need to look at it is not from a standpoint of thinking about how you are going to pay it but rather about how you are going to defeat their motions for judgment against you. An ounce of prevention is always worth a pound of cure. That means you have to get active now because the August hearing will alomst certainly result in a default judgment if you don't get active now. If they do get a judgment they can most likely take about $40 to $50 a week out of your paycheck through garnishment. Believe me, they will take all they can and keep on tacking on more and more interest and other charges and you will be lucky indeed to ever get it paid off.

You need to be thinking about learning how to spot their violations of law and taking them to federal court in order to put a stop to the whole process. You also need to start thinking about how to delay the progress of their attempt to get a judgment in the local court. You are going to have to get copies of all the paperwork in the court file and see how to best answer their complaint now if you still can.

I tend to think that you can with the preliminary so far off. You will have to look at your court rules of civil procedure to find out if it is past time to answer or not. If you don't do something now their motion will most likely be granted in August and you will have the judgmnet around your neck.

Go see what is in the file at the courthouse and get back to me.






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QUESTION: Should I get intouch with thier attorney to work something out

Answer
It won't hurt to try but just don't admit that you owe the debt or in fact don't admit anything. Just get the facts about what it would take to settle the matter. Let them do all the talking while you remain non-committal unless the agree to a settlement that you like or can live with.