Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Missouri

Re: Debt Collection Suit

The legal rights of the respective parties to this suit will largely be defined by the language of the existing loan document and of course the personal guarantee itself. Most of these provide that the creditor can pursue the individual gurantor if they are unable to collect from the corporate debtor, and do not require the creditor to exhaust all remedies against the corporate debtor before pursuing collection from the individual guarantor. As far as obtaining a continuance of the lawsuit, this should not be too difficult. First, as I'm sure you already know if your business is a corporation or an LLC, and the suit is not filed in small claims court, then the company will need to have an attorney represent the company in court. Although you are allowed to represent yourself ("pro se"), I would strongly suggest that you hire an attorney to represent you. Most collection suits are set on what we refer to as a "call docket" for the initial setting. If you were served with a summons, you will need to appear or hire an attorney to appear for you. If you do neither of these things the creditor will take a default judgment against you. Most of these cases are continued for approximately thirty days or so and put on another "call docket". Eventually, if the case can not be resolved or settled, the case will be set for trial. In St. Louis County it is not unusual for one of these cases to be continued several times. In any event, I wish you the best of luck.