Dismissal hearing question

[sucydl]

What is the name of your state?Missouri
I am currently involved in a case where I am being sued. After the first hearing was continued, I made several attempts to try to work out an agreement with the plaintiffs lawyer, as I do not agree with the dollar amounts. The last time I spoke with the plaintiffs lawfirm I was told that they would send me some paperwork to fill out and have notarized and send back to them if we could reach an agreement on the dollar amount. I was also told that it was not necessary for me to go to my court date as they would have it cancelled.
The day of my court date I decided I had better call the court to make sure the lawfirm had cancelled my hearing, and was told that the hearing was still on and I needed to be there. It is my understanding that if I had not shown up as the lawfirm advised I would have got an default judgement against me. On the day of my trial the plaintiffs lawyers did not show up for court so the Judge moved the case to dismissal, and said that I need to be back to court for the hearing on Jan.11,2006. Could you please explain to me what happens at these dismissal hearings? In my opinion the case should be dismissed but I'm afraid this just means the plaintiff gets one more chance to show up.
Thanks, and sorry if this is not the right forum for this thread.

[Skank Finder]

Originally Posted by sucydl

What is the name of your state?Missouri
I am currently involved in a case where I am being sued. After the first hearing was continued, I made several attempts to try to work out an agreement with the plaintiffs lawyer, as I do not agree with the dollar amounts. The last time I spoke with the plaintiffs lawfirm I was told that they would send me some paperwork to fill out and have notarized and send back to them if we could reach an agreement on the dollar amount. I was also told that it was not necessary for me to go to my court date as they would have it cancelled.
The day of my court date I decided I had better call the court to make sure the lawfirm had cancelled my hearing, and was told that the hearing was still on and I needed to be there. It is my understanding that if I had not shown up as the lawfirm advised I would have got an default judgement against me. On the day of my trial the plaintiffs lawyers did not show up for court so the Judge moved the case to dismissal, and said that I need to be back to court for the hearing on Jan.11,2006. Could you please explain to me what happens at these dismissal hearings? In my opinion the case should be dismissed but I'm afraid this just means the plaintiff gets one more chance to show up.
Thanks, and sorry if this is not the right forum for this thread.

"The last time I spoke with the plaintiffs lawfirm I was told that they would send me some paperwork to fill out and have notarized and send back to them"

Well? Elaborate on that statement. Did you?

IAAL

[sucydl]

The paperwork never showed up. I called a couple weeks later and was told they did not know what happened and would resend it. That was approx. 2 months ago. I suspect that since the time they said they would send the paperwork, was also the time they told me not to go to my court date, they figured they were going to get a default judgement against me. Fortunately I called the court to make sure of my hearing and showed up.