Being Sued. Now What?

[imjustagoyle]

What is the name of your state? Florida.

My husband is being sued for a debt we cannot pay. We intend to file bankruptcy, however, we cannot afford to do so until after Christmas. The summons requires a response by Dec. 31. I need to draft a response to this suit, but I have no idea what to say.

An attorney that I know advised me to "deny" and "ask for an accounting" but I'm not sure what he means and he's not advised further. A copy of the cashed check was attached to the summons, so I'm not sure how we could deny it. Is this just a stalling tactic? If so, that's ok. That's really what we need to do is stall, however, if there is a way out of this suit other than bankruptcy we'd be open to that option as well.

 

[imjustagoyle]

bumping for an response

 

[Ladynred]

If you are supposed to file an Answer to the Complaint by 12/31 you'd better get moving. Answers to a Complaint are done by saying you either 'affirm', 'deny' , or 'lack sufficient knowledge to either affirm or deny' the allegations in the Complaint. Their allegations are numbered, you respond in the same manner, by the numbers.

If you don't make your Answer a general denial, they will win a judgment by default.

What kind of debt ?? You refer to a 'cashed check', what was it for ??

How long ago was it ??

Here's a source to help you with your Answer:
http://www.legalhelp.org/answering_complaint.htm

http://www.legalhelp.org/affirmative_diffense.htm

Follow the instructions in the Summons to file your Answer in the time allotted.