Expert: Creditwrench - 7/14/2009

Question
QUESTION: I owe my bank appox. 10,000 dollars on a truck that was repossessed after I was injured and left my job. I have been unemployed for several months and had no problem with them taking back the truck because i could no longer afford the payments. I know i still owe the bank money but i have no income with which to pay my debt off. I received i court summons from the police telling me the bank was bringing me to court for the balance i owe. I live in California now and the hearing is in Utah where i purchased the truck so getting there will be a huge pain. What i was wondering is since i know that i owe the money will i get into any more trouble if i don't go? Will they just get a default judgement or will i get a failure to appear? Once I am employed again i have every intention of paying back my debt but is there anything i can do until then to help my situation? Do i need to start thinking about bankruptcy?

ANSWER: I'd say you need to file a motion to dismiss with the Utah court for lack of geographical jurisdiction and see if they will go for that. It might not do you any good because they can sue where the contract was signed but you need to try something if you can't go there. You should also be advised that they can get a judgment and then domesticate it into California. Of course, you should also send the attorney a copy of what you file with the Utah court and also send him a validation letter. That way he can't move forward with any collection activity until he does validate the debt. If he does you would then have grounds to sue him in federal court. You won't even need a lawyer to do that. So why would you want to spend a bunch of money to file bankruptcy when all you have to do to make them go away is catch them breaking the law and haul them into federal court? Don't make no sense to me.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: How do i go about filing a motion to dismiss? Is this all something that had to be done through the mail or is there a website? As you can tell i know very little about this so any further advice would be appreciated, thank you.

Answer
Well, the first thing you need to do is call the clerk of the court in Utah and ask them whether you can file a motion or response by mail? Some courts will allow that and others won't. If they won't allow that then you will have to go there maybe two or three or more times or you will just have to forget about it and fight it when it gets to your local court which it will do sooner or later. You are going to have a real battle on your hands no matter what you do. I can't advise you what you should do but it seems to me that you will have to either go to Utah multiple times or just let it go until it gets to your state and fight it there. Circumstances will probably dictate what you can do but whatever you decide to do you need to get started learning how to put up a viable fight. I can teach you all you need to know and more but of course I'm not going to do that for free. Why don't you call me and see what we can work out to make this all go away for you?