No Job

by Steve
(sweetwater, TN)

I was issued a court order for a credit card bill for $1200 civil suit. I have no job to pay this back. What will happen when I go to court and what is the best way to clear this up?

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Dec 04, 2011
 No job
by: Debtcollectionanswers.com

I am a little confused by your question because there would be no court order unless there had already been a hearing in the lawsuit related to your credit card debt and the judge had entered a judgment against you. So, what I assume you are asking is what will happen if the judge in the pending lawsuit issues a judgment ordering you to pay the $1,200. By the way, the judgment will probably be for more than $1,200 as it's likely you would also be ordered to pay the attorney's fees and expenses of the creditor or collector that sued you.

If there is a judgment against you, the judgment creditor (whoever won the judgment) will try to collect the amount of the judgment from you. For example, the judgment creditor may ask the court for permission to take money from your bank account, to take one or more assets you may owe, or to put a lien on an asset that you own, which would mean that you would not be able to sell the asset or transfer it to someone else without paying off the lien. If you were employed, the judgment creditor might also ask permission to have your wages garnished. (If you find a job in the future and the statute of limitations on the judgment has not expired (the amount of time that the judgment creditor has to try to collect on the judgment), your wages could be garnished at that point, if the judgment creditor has not already collected on the judgment through some other means.)

Finally, the fact that there is a judgment against you will be another black mark in your credit history and will damage your FICO score. However, if you have defaulted on the debt you owe, that fact has already damaged those things.

One obvious way to avoid a judgment is to contact whomever is suing you and pay the money you owe. You can do that before the day of your court hearing or even on the day of the hearing in exchange for the lawsuit being dropped. However, if you have no means of paying the money, it would be a good idea to consult with a consumer bankruptcy attorney right away. If the attorney decides that you are a good candidate for bankruptcy based on a careful review of your finances, the lawsuit will have to stop immediately once your bankruptcy begins; and if there is already a judgment against you by the time that happens, the bankruptcy will halt all efforts to enforce the judgment. Meanwhile, bankruptcy will give you and your opportunity an opportunity to figure out what to do about your debt including any judgment against you.

Another option if you have no assets that a judgment creditor could take and no real prospects of finding a job, is to do nothing because the judgment creditor has no means of enforcing the judgment. Again however, I recommend talking with a consumer bankruptcy about what to do based on a complete review of your financial situation. Go here for a free consultation with abankruptcy attorney.

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