The United States Constitution provides that no one shall be deprived of “life, liberty or property without due process of law.” Due process means an established course for judicial proceedings designed to safeguard the legal rights of the individual. A major principle of due process is that parties whose rights are to be affected are …
The simplest legal definition of SERVE is to deliver a legal document to someone. In order to obtain a judgment in a collection lawsuit, the plaintiff must cause the defendant to be SERVED with the SUMMONS (a document requiring someone to appear or otherwise answer a lawsuit) and the COMPLAINT (a document stating what the …
SURVIVING A LAWSUIT – MAKING A RECORD OF HOW YOU WERE SERVED Read More »
Here is an outline of the general procedure of a lawsuit. First, the plaintiff files a COMPLAINT with the court. At the same time as filing the Complaint, the plaintiff will also present to the court a SUMMONS which will be stamped by the court clerk. Second, the plaintiff will cause the defendant to be …
The first step in surviving a lawsuit is to understand what it is all about. The following definitions will help you to understand what you’ve been served with. LAWSUIT. An action taken in a court of law in which one party (a person, group or business) is asking a court to provide a remedy for …
The Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019 streamlines existing rules for small businesses to restructure successfully under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. A small business debtor can be a business entity (corporation or LLC) or an individual, engaged in business, with debts less than about $2.7 million. Some of the Act’s provisions include: A …
CHAPTER 11 BANKRUPTCIES NOW EASIER FOR SMALL BUSINESS DEBTORS Read More »
One way to help your credit after a bankruptcy is to get a SECURED CREDIT CARD. With one of these, you make a deposit into a bank account, of let’s say $500. Then you are given a credit card with a $500 limit. When you make timely payments these are reported to credit bureaus as …
The word DISCOVER comes from COVER, meaning to hide or conceal, and DIS-, meaning the opposite of. Thus, to DISCOVER is learn or find out about. DISCOVERY, in the law, means the process, before trial, of finding out what information an opposing party has about the case. If you are the defendant in a lawsuit, …
If you make any payments to a creditor within 90 days prior to filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy (the simplest type of bankruptcy, also called a “liquidation”) the Trustee might ask that creditor to pay the money back. For example, if you pay $3,000 on your old dental bill on April 1, and then file …
The answer is yes, but it is a complicated procedure used rarely. Let’s say, for example, that someone sues you and obtains a $100K judgment against you. The first step they will probably take to collect is to obtain from the court an ABSTRACT OF JUDGMENT, (basically a summary of the amount of judgment and the …
CAN A JUDGMENT CREDITOR FORCE YOU TO SELL YOUR HOME? Read More »
Any lawsuit starts with a COMPLAINT, which states what the Plaintiff is asking for, typically an award of money. The defendant is also served with a SUMMONS, a document describing what will happen if the Defendant does nothing – generally the Defendant will be subject to having a DEFAULT JUDGMENT against him or her. A JUDGMENT …
