Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California
I received a court document from a legal firm regarding a debt claim from a credit card company. The notice says that I must answer the suit within 30 days or risk automatic judgement.
The legal firm discussed the issue and offered a resolution under a Stipulated Payment Arrangement that they say needs to be filed in court.
They faxed a letter stating the basics of an agreed upon payment arrangement and noted that the actual written stipulation would follow in four to six weeks.
My question is...
If I don't answer the suit within the 30 days with the court and plaintiff takes 60 days to file the documents for the stipulated agreement, do I risk automatic judgement or does the faxed letter protect me in some way as long as I meet the terms of the stipulated payment arrangement?
If I am at risk based on the time frames listed, should I be requesting a time extension from the court to answer and allow more time for the plaintiff to file this paperwork? Should I be answering using the letter? Should I not do anything at all and wait from the filings to occur?
The goal is to resolve the issue in question without judgement or trial.
Many thanks for your advice.
1 Answer from Attorneys
The court will not do anything unless the plaintiff asks for it. The judgment is not automatic. It must be requested by the plaintiff when the defendant fails to respond. All you need is something in writing from the plaintiff stating that your time to file a response is extended. Then if the negotiations break down for some reason and they try to take your default, you can file the written agreement with the court and have it set aside (and probably have them sanctioned as well). The letter you have would probably be enough, but if you want to be very careful, you should ask them to fax a letter saying that your time to answer is extended thirty days or until, say, two weeks after they send you the stipulation.
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