Circuit Court Summons from Asset Systems

[tinman8]

What is the name of your state? Oregon.
Today I received a Circuit Court summons with Asset Systems as the Plaintiff. My Wife and I are the defendants. The summons was delivered to our room mate. I thought a summons had to be delivered directly to the defendant. Am I wrong and/or mislead about that?
This debt is for 3 e-room visits my wife had almost a year ago for an extreme and dangerous medical condition. She is better now. The hospital accepted my meager payments and put me in collections.
I have 30 days to answer the complaint, by filing a motion. Where do i get a motion, from the court clerk? Any information is helpful.

 

[AttorneyOney]

Find an Oregon attorney to discuss this with. For example, do a google search for "oregon lawyer referral" and follow any link you see to a bar association site. You'll probably find that you can obtain a low or zero cost initial consultation with someone.

Whether service on your roommate was valid depends on local law. Generally speaking, it's seldom worthwhile to contest the validity of service of process unless a statute of limitations is just about to expire. The plaintiff will just serve you again, or commence a new action and serve you properly in the new action.

If you read the summons carefully, it probably gives you 30 days to serve an answer or a motion of some kind on the plaintiff's attorney and to file the same with the court. Some of a defendant's obligations at this stage of litigation are not going to be on the summons: they are embodied in the state rules of civil procedure and in local court rules that attorneys have studied and practiced with.

An attorney will be able to tell you if you have any valid defense to this collection action or if you have any possible counterclaim under federal and state fair debt collection laws. One thing is fairly certain: without an attorney, you won't get the best possible result. Furthermore, if you fail to assert counterclaims arising from the same transaction or occurrence as the plaintiff's claim, you will lose them -- this is a very easy trap for an unrepresented defendant to fall into.

 

[tinman8]

Thanks walter

Iwill pursue this course of action, i appreciate your input. I will keep posting on this thread as appropriate.