Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia

Re: show cause summons

I think you are confused about what you received. I am confused from your description and I am very concerned about not knowing exatly what you received.

A "show cause" normally means that you had a previous court date to answer interrogoatires AFTER already losing the case, and you MISSED your court date. I am sorry that you did not put your zip code on your question and people seem to have stopped doing that. I could tell you right now which counties are likely to go easy on you and which are big problems.

However, I have seen Fairfax judges send people to jail for 1 or 2 days for (repeatedly or flagrantly) missing earlier court dates for debtor's interrogatories.

Make sure you have a darn good excuse prepared if you missed an earlier court date. You might not need the excuse. But have it ready anyway.

One of the two guys who spent a day in jail HAD a good excuse but did a terrible job explaining why he missed the earlier court date. He had been up all night repairing downed electrical lines in a storm for PEPCO but when the judge asked him why he missed the court date he said only "I forgot."

However, you would have gotten a "summons to answer debtor's interrogatories" the FIRST time you were supposed to be in court. So I am unsure of what you actually received.

It IS possible for a creditor to issue a summons to answer interrogatories to someone who is NOT the debtor if they have reason to believe that the person is holding property belonging to the debtor or owes the debtor money.

However, I think you need to go and ask the clerk to see the file some days BEFORE the court date to figure this out.

DO NOT let the creditor pretend that the business debt is the same as your debt, if the business was incorporated or an LLC.

It sounds to me like you are bringing this up long AFTER the lawsuit is already over.

If you did not know about this lawsuit before now, you need to file a motion to vacate the judgment IF the lasuit was served on the wrong address.

If it was served on your correct address, I don't know why you did not go to court back then and raise these issues back then.

Go to the clerk's office (like, now, so you have time to react before the court date). If the addrss on the ORIGINAL Warrant in Debt or lawsuit (the first paper in the file) is the wrong address, then you may have suffered a default judgment without being properly served. Then you file a motion to vacate and set aside the judgment because you did not live at the address.

Alternatively, file a motion to set aside the judgment AS TO THE WIFE ONLY as procurred by a fraud on the court if there is no grounds for including the wife in the matter.

Re: show cause summons

The wife should appear for the hearing scheduled in the case and make a request to the judge to have her name removed from the case if she in fact has no connection with the business and the matters which caused the judgment to be entered against the husband.