Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Illinois

The best thing you can do is pay what you owe and stop running up debt. If they can jail you anywhere in Illinois for not paying your debts, they can do it everywhere including Cook County and Chicago. You need to respond to the summons as per the instructions. You can ask for a fee waiver or "pauper's petition" at the same time as you file your appearance to avoid paying the filing fee. Since you could win the lottery next week, your creditors will take a default judgment against you to protect their interests. People do not generally get jailed for not paying their debts. They do get jailed for disobeying court orders, including failing to appear in response to a court order. We no longer have debtor's prisons but you never want to piss off the Judge.

Failing to respond to the summons should not result in your being detained. The consequence for ignoring the summons, as stated, is a default judgment. In other words, it will be determined you owe the debt. That allows the creditor to take the next step, trying to find a way to collect, which usually involves wage garnishments, non-wage garnishments (such as a bank account) or a hearing called a Citation to Discover Assets.

If you would like to appear and contest that you owe the money or contest the amount you owe, you can likely have the court fees waived by filing a petition to file as a poor person. You will need to provide basic financials for the judge to sign off.

The news about arrests is often misleading and the law is in the process of being changed to make the procedures more strict. Generally, people are not being arrested for failing to respond to a summons and complaint, nor for failing to pay the debt. People are being arrested for ignoring court orders (usually to show up, but may also be specific things they agreed by court order to do). Usually, this would involve a Citation to Discover Assets. If a citation is noticed for a certain court date and ignored, then the judge would issue a Rule to Show Cause for another court date which would be served and would specifically state that failure to appear will result in a warrant being issued. In other words, even at that point, the people being arrested have ignored two notices.

The above is not the only way arrest may occur, but the arrest is a way to get people into court that ignore repeated notices. Otherwise, a defendant could avoid a creditor for ever if the courts are without power to compel people to be there.

You should consider whether a bankruptcy is warranted. It may not be at this time. The scope of this space does not afford an opportunity to assess the situation and advise you. I recommend you assemble for legal consultation: (1) your income information for November 2011 through the present, including wages and unemployment during that period; (2) all your bills (copies neatly assembled, back pages included); (3) last four years� tax returns; (4) a credit report (use www.annualcreditreport.com to obtain free report if not requested in last year); and (5) other information that may apply, such as copies of lawsuits. Call at your earliest convenience to afford the most opportunity in which to be advised about your best course.

I do not recommend filing bankruptcy on your own. There are too many complex issues. I have seen several posts on this site for debtors who filed on their own and are seeking counsel concerning complications. Most of them will have a hard time finding an attorney to get involved to unwind the mess without the attorney charging several times what would originally have been paid.

I have received an alias summons You cannot be jailed for ignoring a lawsuit complaint. I think what you are talking about is ignoring an information subpoena that comes after a default judgment. Once there is a judgment, the court has the authority to order you to disclose your assets or be held in contempt.