Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in North Carolina

Re: Debt Civil Summons

Among other things, you need to look at Rule 4 and Rule 12 of the NC Rules of Civil Procedure (North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 1A) to see if there was sufficient service and how to object.

You can also look at North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 1, Article 7 regarding proper venue and Article 6A for personal jurisdiction.

Finally, you need to understand what constitutes making a general appearance.

If you feel that there was insufficiency of service, insufficiency of process, improper venue, and/or lack of jurisdiction, first I would probably file a Motion to Extend Time to answer and get an additional 30 days (as long as I did research to make sure that filing a motion to extend time does not constitute a general appearance), then file a Motion to Dismiss based on whatever grounds you concluded. Then wait for the other side to schedule the hearing and when the hearing dates comes, argue your case. If you win, the lawsuit should be dismissed and they will have to refile and serve you properly(maybe a statute of limitations will kick in). If you lose, you would have 30 days to file an answer. You would also need to get advice about appealing that decision - b/c if you filed an answer and then appealed, it might be that you entered a general appearance, so you might need to appeal before doing anything else.

If I was really being strategic and felt that there were more than one grounds on which this complaint could be defeated - such as insufficiency of service and insufficiency of venue, then I might even attack only one of the grounds and if the complaint gets dismissed and they file a 2nd time with more errors, then attack the 2nd ground.

- Jeff