A question about Civil Lawsuits
 

lets say a company is suing you and you get served with a court summons. you fail to respond back to the summons ands the company wins a default judgment in the case. and they are asking for $500,000 when you only have $20,000 in assets. what would happen? could you file bankruptcy to get out of the rest of the $480,000 that you owe?

why the hell did you not show up for court and let them win by default

my friend didnt show up for court because he is being sued by a company in another state. he was too lazy to travel.

your friend didn't have to show up himself if he would of hired an attorney. i don't know the answer but i hope its not MS.

it is MS :Oh crap

if he don't give a shit we sure don't.

before they close the border, mexico.
and then get lost.

but seriously. after they go after his $20,000 in assets what else can they do to him?

It depends on the State. Some States will not let you clear a judgment by declaring bankruptcy. You need to hire an attorney, quickly. You?re an idiot for letting this get this far.

Get a fucking lawyer now

:1orglaugh If he was too stupid to hire a lawyer I hope he has to pay off every penny from that 500k....

They can and most likley will garnish all of your future earnings until the judgement is paid off. Basically you fucked yourself by being to stupid to get a Lawyer and work it out before letting them get a default judgement.:2 cents:

He looses the 20k in assets. Company can place liens or garnishments on wages and so forth. Judgement will be entered into record that will remain for many fucking years. After they take what they can and fuck you as they will, they ussually will end up selling off the judgement to collections and there it will remain for 5+ years depending on the state. If they are able to get any money during the collection period the time starts all over.

Bankruptcy reform has also changed a great deal, so it is not as easy to erase and forget.

if your 'friend' was too fuckin lazy to travel over a half million dollar lawsuit, he is probably too lazy to get any kind of a job or even wipe his own ass. Just tell him to sell what he can on ebay or whatever and get a head start on being homeless.

tell you stupid friend that if he had showed up, he could have most likely got that reduced by maybe 75% or maybe even had it thrown out. Not showing up is so fucking dumb I cant even understand how someone can be that stupid. I hope if I ever sue someone, I hope they just dont show up.

Nothing much besides get an order to collect any future earnings he has.

Your friend is an idiot.

Wait a minute. Where does your friend live and where is the company that sued him? Are you sure that jursdiction was proper?

Default judgments can be vacated if you argue invalid service and/or jursdiction. You cant argue the merits of the case, missed your chance to do that already.

Hope he lives in Florida (forget the other 3 states off-hand that still have it).

Gotta love the homestead law.

2c

I can't find sympathy for someone who can't take the responsibility of hiring a lawyer and having legal representation in a civil suit. That's just plain stupidity any way you look at it.

It may already be too late, but if I was your buddy I'd be hiring an attorney PRONTO! and looking in to what legal rights are remaining.

Either way, sounds like he's royally fubar'd at this point.

he is screwed

Texas, Florida, and Oklahoma have the broadest homestead laws.

If he does not have the money they can't collect.

cant they collect on any future earnings he makes?

absolutely

what a retard

what he spamming them or something?

they claim he was spamming them but he doesnt even mail.

so he doesnt even mail, they sue him for a half million and he just lets them win by default?

sure.... ok man

Amen to that.

Ask OJ.

:2 cents:

how does living in one of those three states help you out if your being sued by MS?

I always come to GFY for my "expert" legal advice. :1orglaugh

In those states you can not be forced to sell property or they have very nice rules regarding it.

Something wrong with that story.

If they are going to take the trouble to do that, yes, you can have wages garnished if he can wages . Even then I understand the max is 25% - the guy has to live.

Its not much trouble to do it. Hell, any idiot can do it, the courts even publish a do it yourself guide with simple forms for doing this. And if he was sued for spamming, you can bet that whoever sued him is gonna go after him. And it sounds like he deserves it.

Sounds you did this not your "imaginary" friend. :(

I think you've got your basic answers, maybe I can recap brieflly (standard disclaimer, IANAL)

-- The default judgement is enforceable against any assets, liquid or not, that the person owns. This includes ownership % in businesses, domain names, intellectual property such as photo sets, websites, etc., cars, boats, any sort of cash/securities/stocks/etc. There are limited exclusions for a house that you live in, but they can still get a lien against it so it can't be sold without paying off the leinholder.

-- The judgement stays alive for a long time, varying by state (7 years is common.) It can be renewed at the end of the first term for another term, usually the same length. Most courts will award interest, usually at a high rate (8-10% per year) on any judgement, so on 500,000, the judgement could grow by $3500-4500/month

-- In MOST cases, the judgement can be erased by a bankruptcy, but the laws have recently changed, and it's more difficult to get a Chapter 7 (discharge) bankruptcy than it used to be; you often have to make a 5-7 year payout agreement to pay whatever you reasonably can (determined by the court) now.

-- Vacating the judgement by arguing inappropriate venue is possible, but somewhat of a longshot. The judge hearing the case won't take too kindly to the fact that nobody bothered to even respond to the case.

Your best bet is to contact the judgement holder and try and work out a settlement. It's going to suck, as they have little reason to negotiate with you, but perhaps if you offer them as much cash as you can get, and an aggressive payment arrangement for a year or two, they MIGHT go along with it. But I'd highly recommend using an attorney familar with negotiating deals like this to make it happen.



--

you are wrong my friend