By the time you receive a summons to appear in court because you cannot pay a debt you owe, you are already in a crisis mode and you need to take swift action to prevent further damage to yourself or to those around you.
Handling a lawsuit brought against you about your finances can be a very difficult matter to handle if you don’t know what to do. Usually, the biggest problem that you most likely face is denying the facts or refusing to meet the matter head-on, for one reason or the other.
If you want to get back control of your life, the best course of action is not procrastinating on the matter further but deal with the issue directly. You could start taking action by taking simple steps like looking for top consumer reviews that can give you a glimpse into what actual steps you can take under your current situation.
Below are the steps that you should take into consideration if you have received summons to appear in court to answer to charges in a lawsuit about a financial matter.
1. Get all the necessary documentation to justify your case or your position
Your first and immediate step should be to find all the documentation related to the matter relating to the summons. This should include the agreement that you entered into with your lender and any proof of payment that you made to your lender such as receipts or bank deposit slip.
You should also have your bank statements and any other relevant financial and legal documentation in order to either confirm or deny the just cause as to whether your lender has a right to take you to court or not.
Sometimes, the case that you are to answer for may not have legal cause because of a technicality that you are easily able to prove. For example, if the case brought against you is way past the statute of limitations, then you may be able to easily prove such a matter easily and have the case dismissed.
2. Know your legal obligations and rights.
It is also important to know what your rights are with respect to debt and financial matters. The Federal Trade Commission is the custodian of most rules and laws regarding financial matters. To be more specific, one of the laws that you will need to be conversant with is the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
The laws in this Act govern what debtors, creditors and debt collectors should do or not do to each other while conducting their business. For example, a debt collector can only call a debtor between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.
3. Engage and hire a lawyer
You then need to engage a lawyer to be able to represent you in court.
4. Respond to the lawsuit against you
Your next step is to respond to the legal summons presented to you by appearing in court at the appointed time or else you could lose the case simply by not showing up.
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