You don’t have an SOL defense, which is what I think JETX’s questions were intended to explore.
There is no guarantee that showing up and explaining that you were working with a debt management company will change things. It’s virtually guaranteed that not showing up will give them the judgment they’re asking for. Anything else would require the Court to independently find some defect in their claim and, when you’re permitting a default, there is no incentive to look that hard. It’s a “maybe” vs. a certainty.
Creditors and CAs don’t like debt management companies. Some won’t work with them. Some companies make an honest effort to intervene and resolve, but mostly the distaste is justified. If you paid fees to a debt management company, if you advanced money to be disbursed to creditors, if you had any reasonable expectation that the company was trying to resolve this matter on your behalf, it’s worth the time to show up and tell that story. The Court might cut you some slack on the interest and late fees. It’s not a certainty. It’s your decision. But it also gives you the opportunity to talk to the creditor and that may be an opportunity to work out a plan directly. The alternative for them is to get in line with everyone else.
This site may provide some useful information about the IL Small Claims process and about judgment enforcement:
http://www.illinoislegalaid.org/index.cfm/index.cfm
