Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Florida

Unfortunately, most of these debt settlement companies don't prevent you from being served with a lawsuit by one of your credit cards. When you say you have been working with them for 5 months do you mean you have been sending them money, not paying your credit cards and waiting for them to resolve the debt for pennies on the dollar? If so, you will more likely than not be disappointed with the results. Most of these companies pay their own fees before they even attempt to settle your debt. Your best bet is to retain an attorney in your area to assit you in responding to the credit card lawsuit, as many times there are defenses to these suits. If you don't get an attorney you will need to appear in court or you can see what type of settlement agreement you can come to with the creditor's attorney. However, many times these settlements are nothing more than you agreeing to pay what you owed plus attorneys fees and costs and if you breach the agreement they get an automatic default judgment against you. Get yourself an attorney and take a long hard look at what this "debt settlement" company has really done for you besides let your credit score take a hit.

Hello:

I just read your question and the one response. I agree with that response. I have handled many of these types of cases. You may be able to raise a defense to the claim...for example, if the Plaintiff bought the debt from a prior owner of the debt, they often do not have something signed by you proving your responsibility for the debt. You could demand a trial. If you have no defenses, the only thing that they can do to you is get a judgment against you. If that were to happen, If you support 50% of a dependent's expenses, they cannot garnish your wages. You could agree at small claims court to work out a payment plan with their lawyer or let them get a judgment and wipe it out with a bankruptcy if that's something you are contemplating.

If my office can be of any assistance, please give us a call. Tom Rosenblum