Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Wisconsin

Not knowing what part of the world this occurred in, it is impossible for me to evaluate the legality of the damage judgment which was apparently obtained against you, although I doubt if they can be obtained anywhere in the U.S. simply by "calling the judge." If this were all occurring in WI, it is possible to obtain a judgment here by default against someone who cannot be successfully served by a licensed process server with a lawsuit summons by getting permission to publish the summons in the newspaper. In that event, the summons will be deemed served on the first day of publication, and the time periods for you to fight the case by filing a legally sufficient answer begin to run at that time. Although one usually only gets 20 days to notify the court that they wish to fight the case in this fashion, rules for filing an answer or reopening the judgment following publication service tend to be slightly more relaxed. No matter how you are served, therefore, you must retain a lawyer as soon as possible after you first find out about it, if you wish to fight any case filed against you. If you fail to do that, the judgment against you is presumed legally valid, meaning that the creditor can force you to provide financial information (or face possible jail for contempt of court), garnishee 25% of your wages, or seize bank accounts and other assets. If you have a valid defense that the accident was not your fault (despite being drunk), you should definitely try to reopen the judgment right away. Depending upon how much time has passed; bankruptcy could be another way to reopen the judgment, even though damages caused by drunken driving are not normally dischargeable in bankruptcy. That is because the bankruptcy court has the legal ability to undo many things done by state courts during a 90 day window known as the "preference period." However, if you don't have other reasons to go bankruptcy, or of more time than 90 days has passed, you would need to bring the motion to reopen in the court which originally granted the judgment. Either way, you need an experienced litigation lawyer as soon as possible if you wish to contest the upcoming post judgment collection proceedings against you. My comments in this public web forum are intended only for public educational purposes and are not legal advice specifically tailored to you and your case. Instead, you should retain a lawyer in order to meet your legal needs, since I will be taking no action on your case. Disclosure of confidential information in a public web forum is not recommended and is always subject to being used against you in court. You are welcome to contact my Racine, WI office at 262-633-3090 or email me at [email protected] for further information. Web forum answers may contain attorney advertising materials.