I didn't go to court

[tallskinnydevil]

What is the name of your state? Indiana, I owe a cc and a group of lawyers picked up the collections, I made payments to them but they kept sending me letters threatining court if I didn't pay, so I stopped payments. I got a letter to go to court for this and I didn't go, now I've gotten anouther that says, that a citation be issued against me to show cause why I should not be held in contempt of court for failing to comply with the order of the court. What should I do?

[Debt Guy]

What should I do?

Respond to the letters. Those "letters" are technically a order from the court for you to answer all the questions the attorneys for the judgment creditor asks.

If you don't respond, the judge can and just might issue a warrant for your arrest.

Why are you not taking care of business?

[tallskinnydevil]

so I should write a letter to the courts? I have anouther court date in july

[nrknlknek]

I don't know what you have recieved but it sounds like a post judgment proceeding is taking place. Do they have a judgment against you? If they do, the law allows them to examine you under oath to determine if there are assets to satisfy their judgmemt.

[Texas Pooh]

Continuing to refuse an order of the court to show up is grounds for contempt. If a contempt order is issued, you can be picked up and held until bond is posted.

Sounds to me like post-judgment discovery was sent and you ignored it, and now creditors are seeking to have you held in contempt for failure to answer the discovery.

You need to start paying attention to this.

Show up for court.

[Skapare]

While it might be the case that the lawyers that tried to collect this debt are in the scumbag category, that does not mean that ignoring them makes things go your way.

If you have the money to pay this debt, be prepared to pay it.

Read the orders you get from the courts very carefully and follow the directions exactly. If there is anything you don't understand (and I suspect there might be a lot) then you may need a lawyer to protect you from your own future mistakes that could incur additional liabilities or worse.

If you don't have the money to pay this debt, you may want to consider bankruptcy. You would need to discuss your situation with a bankruptcy lawyer to determine what is appropriate in your case. Bankruptcy is not something to enter into on a whim, nor is it appropriate for everyone. It sticks with you for at least 10 years. It can effect your ability to get credit or in some cases even a job. I am expecting a big rise in bankruptcies over the next couple years.

[AL HR]

Originally Posted by tallskinnydevil

they kept sending me letters threatining court if I didn't pay, so I stopped payments.

I read this and my head just about exploded.

[Skapare]

Originally Posted by AL HR

I read this and my head just about exploded.

If the creditor was in fact making such threats despite being paid, I can see how some people would conclude it's time to stop. That's not necessarily the right thing to do. Or maybe they figured the payments weren't getting to the right people or weren't being credited to the right account. Debt collections really should suspend the harassment and threat tactics once they've gotten the debtor to start paying.