If You Are Sued for a Debt that You Owe
by: Texas RioGrande Legal Aid - Austin & Lone Star Legal Aid - Houston
You may be served with papers informing you that you have been sued. If
you do not owe the debt or cannot afford to pay the debt, you should write
a letter to the court and "deny the allegations in the Plaintiff's
Original Petition" and request a trial. You should send a copy of this
letter to the opposing counsel by fax or certified mail and be sure to
retain the certified mail receipts. You should make sure that you put the
docket number of the lawsuit, i.e., the long number on the top of the
first page of the Plaintiff's Original Petition, on your letter so the
court will know which suit you are writing about. You do not have long to
file your affidavit or write your letter to the court after you are sued.
You only have about 10 days from the date you are served to file your
Answer or letter in Justice court and 20 days in other courts, so do not
delay. Alternatively, try to retain an attorney to assist you.
After
you have been sued, you may also receive several documents: Request for
Disclosures, Interrogatories, Request for Production of Documents and
Things, and Request for Admissions. Responses are due within 50 days after
you were served. If you read through these requests, you will see a list
of questions from the creditor asking you to tell them what people, papers
and things you'll be bringing to the hearing to support your answer. They
may also ask you to state your view of the facts of the matter. And they
may also ask you to give them copies of certain papers (checks or
receipts), or allow them to inspect certain things (goods they sold you).
You must answer these questions as fully and as truthfully as you can, and
allow them to see the papers and things, by the dates given on the
requests. If you don't, the court could rule for the creditor.
In
particular, you should respond to any request for admissions by denying
any statements you disagree with or by stating your inability to admit or
deny certain statements because you do not know whether the statement is
true or not. If you fail to respond, you probably will lose at trail or
even earlier, because you may have admitted all the points the creditor
has to prove. After court receives your answer/affidavit or letter, it
will send you a letter telling you the time, date, and place of your
hearing. YOU MUST SHOW UP FOR THE HEARING. If you don't show up for the
hearing, the court could rule for your creditor. Please be aware that
showing up for the hearing is not the same as filing an answer. You must
do both, or risk losing in court. It would be wise to get there early.
Bring all the people who will be speaking for you, and all the papers and
things that you will be using to support your case. (Such as bills you
received, checks you wrote, or damaged goods.) At the hearing, the
creditor will get to speak first. When they have finished, you will be
allowed to ask them questions you might have about what was said or shown
to support their case. Then you will get your turn to speak. When you have
finished, the creditor will be allowed to ask questions about what was
said or shown to support your case. When both sides have nothing further
to say or show and no more questions, the court will make a decision. It
would be a good idea to write down what you wan to say before going to the
hearing.
The creditor may get a judgment against you, which is an
order by the court for you to pay the debt plus court costs, interest and
attorney fees. The court will send you a notice telling you how much you
owe and when the payments are due. But if you cannot pay the debt, the
creditor cannot take your home, your household goods, your car, put you in
jail or send your children to foster care. If they cannot collect the
money from you, they will likely file an Abstract or Judgment in the
county land records office. This means they will have a claim called a
lien for the amount of the judgment against any land you own OTHER THAN
YOUR HOMESTEAD. In other words, the judgment has absolutely no legal
effect on your homestead. The Abstract of Judgment is only meant to allow
the creditor to collect what you have been ordered to pay them. It does
not allow them to foreclose on or take your home or land. But it could
make it difficult for you to sell your home or land. Any difficulty,
however, can be addressed by filing an affidavit. It could also make it
hard for you to borrow money and could hurt your credit rating. Even so,
you should not sacrifice your basic needs (food, housing, utilities,
medicines, transportation, etc.) trying to pay a judgment.
Rather
than represent yourself, you will usually be better served if you can
retain an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, contact your local
legal aid office.
Last Reviewed On: 09/16/10
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