Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Missouri

I was served with papers for a debt with Discover Card - served on March 16th - Court date March 28th...I imediately phoned the attys office and they agreed to payment arangements. I was given a file number to put on each check. Now...on Friday March 25th I received a letter from the attys office stating they would request a "stay" (on Monday March 28th)and that would remain as long as my payments were made. I could not get off of work and called the attys office first thing Monday morning (the 28th) I asked if I still needed to be present since payment arrangemnets were agreed to and they said (quote) "No...it will just be a default" "You're fine as long as you make you payments to us"

I asked if this was in any way a "negative" thing to have happen to me and they again said "No...it's just a default" Now I have recieved a letter from the court stating that a default judgement has been entered against me in favor of the plaintiff. So....my question is - Should have I ignored the attys office and risked my job by ignoring my boss...and went to the hearing?! It seems that there was no "stay" requested by the atty as originally stated - or am I wrong? Also...if I had gone, what would the disposition have been? Do I need to do something to have the disposition changed? I feel as though I was misled. That I was left with a bit of a false sense of security with the reaction by the attys office and the answer of "Just" a default being the result of my not going. Also, my first payment was made,as arranged, to the attys office on April1st.


Asked on 4/05/11, 10:33 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Anthony Smith LawSmith

Obviously, you see it was foolish to nto contact counsle of your own BEFORE yrou court date. The attorney for Discover told you it woudl be defautl judgment and they woudl stay (hold off) collecting on it as long as you made the agreed payments. You can hire counsel to ask the court to set aside the defualt, because you thought that plaintiff's counsel was going to have the casse set over. You may only have thrioty days to get this done. So, if you want to get the judgment off your record, you need to contact counsel in yoru area very soon.

Good luck

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Answered on 4/08/11, 6:10 am


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