Served With a Texas Lawsuit Summons or Citation – What Are Your Options Now?
You may have found our website because you were recently served with a debt collection lawsuit. If so, then you probably already know from reading the court documents that you received that by no choice of your own, you now have deadlines and obligations that are imposed upon you by the various Texas Rules of Procedure. These are very serious deadlines. You must make an “appearance” in front of the court within which you were sued by a certain period of time or you risk losing the case by way of a “default judgment.”
Generally, in Texas courts, an “answer” to the lawsuit is due by 10:00AM on the Monday following 10 days after you were served (for justice courts and small claims courts) or 20 days after you were served (for district courts and county courts). On a much brighter note, if you are looking for help, you can relax because you have come to the right place. You are visiting the website of a Texas law firm that does nothing but debt lawsuit defense and judgment negotiation. Our firm has handled thousands of cases. Based on our experience, here are some of the choices that you have and what we believe to be the most likely of possible outcomes:
1. Ignore the Lawsuit.
There is no law that requires you to defend or respond to the lawsuit at this stage. You can ignore the case if you want to. But please keep in mind that to do so would be a very, very bad decision. Most debt collection cases can be defended, but not if the lawsuit is not formally responded to. Many people think that the lawsuit they were served with is simply a tactic that the debt collector is using to “intimidate” them into paying money. That may very well be true, but it is also a real lawsuit. There is no difference between a credit card lawsuit and any other civil lawsuit. There is no law in Texas that prevents a credit card company or debt buyer from filing a civil case against an alleged debtor to collect money. And, there is nothing to stop the debt collector from garnishing your bank accounts and other eligible property if it gets a final default judgment against you because you ignored the lawsuit. They want you to ignore it.
2. Represent Yourself in Court.
The odds are that this is another very bad choice that will end up with you having a judgment entered against you. Even trial lawyers know better than to represent themselves in court. Even if you read every piece of information that you can find on the internet on the topic of going it “pro se,” the odds are just not very good that the case will end up with a positive outcome. The bottom line is that unless you try lawsuits for a living and have done so for years, the lawyer on the other side is going to ambush you sooner or later. It may be because you miss a procedural deadline that you were unaware of. It may be because you do not properly respond to “written discovery.” Or, it may be because at trial, the debt collection lawyer actually calls you as an “adverse witness” and puts you on the witness stand and makes you testify, which is very common in civil lawsuits since there is no right against “civil self incrimination” in these types of cases.
3. Hire an Attorney With Little Consumer Collection Defense Experience.
It is important that you hire an attorney who is qualified to defend your case. If you hire an inexperienced attorney, the odds are greater that you will not obtain a result that you will be satisfied with. Keep in mind that the fee that you ultimately pay the attorney that you hire is an investment in the outcome of your case. Be sure to make a wise investment.
4. Contact us for a Free Consultation.
You may call us or use this website to send us a message that we will respond to as soon as we can. Moving forward, you will not need to worry about figuring out when you must appear in court, we can make that determination for you. If you hire us, we will also make any court appearances on your behalf. We have never had client forced to appear in court. And, while we cannot promise you a specific outcome, we can promise you that we will do everything in our power to secure a result that will make you satisfied. Please see some of our past results here. Our contact information may be found here.
