Stopping Lawsuits in Florida

While most of us hear about lawsuits all the time - either on television “cop shows,” in the newspaper or on the new there is nothing entertaining about being served with a lawsuit arising from a credit card or other debt that you owe. Although there are no criminal implications in a collection lawsuit - you cannot be imprisoned for a debt owed to a private party - there is something very unsettling about being labeled as a “defendant” and seeing your name in print as the liable party in a lawsuit.

Responding to a Lawsuit

First, you need to understand what a lawsuit is and what it is not. Let’s use as an example the story of a lawsuit filed by Citibank against a client of ours named Fred. Over the past two and 1/2 years, Fred had used his Citibank Visa to charge everything from gasoline to clothes to groceries to taxes. Fred also used his Visa card to take a mini-vacation in Las Vegas about a year ago where he took a cash advance of $2,000 to gamble. Fred had been making the minimum payments through January of this year, but he stopped making payments when he lost his job as the manager of a home health care agency.

Over the past few months, Citibank, and later a collection agency representing Citibank, has been calling Fred in an attempt to collect the balance on the Visa card, which now totals over $14,000. Fred used his caller ID to screen his calls and last week, a sheriff’s deputy knocked on the door, verified Fred’s identity and handed him a packet of papers. The deputy told Fred “you have been sued and you need to read these papers.”

The lawsuit was filed in court by Citibank on May 19th, although Fred was not served (i.e., handed the lawsuit by the sheriff’s deputy) until June 7. Fred called our office in a panic on June 10 - he looked at the “summons” - one of the papers he was served with and it says that he must respond to the lawsuit within 20 days or face a default judgment.

Advice from Clark and Washington

Fred is now sitting in Clark and Washington’s office and he needs to know what to do. Here is a summary of what we are telling him:

A lawsuit only means that the plaintiff (Citibank) claims that you owe them. You have the right to defend yourself against this debt. For example, if this debt arises from a stolen credit card, you may have a defense. If someone stole your identity, you might have a defense. You might have other Florida law defenses to the lawsuit as well.
If you do owe the money to Citibank, you can be found legally liable for this debt. This means that Citibank would have the right to garnish your wages, seize your bank account or place a lien on your house. Those are bad things, but you cannot be imprisoned for owing Citibank for credit card debt.
The twenty day period to file your Answer begins when you are served, not when the lawsuit was filed. This means that you have twenty days from June 7.
Even after the 20 days runs, the court will not issue a judgment right away - you will have a few days to open any default judgment. Except in very unusual circumstances, Citibank’s claim will not be reduced to judgment on day 21 after service.
If you want to Answer the lawsuit and deny Citibank’s claim for money, you will need to file an Answer yourself or you will need to hire a lawyer to prepare and file an Answer on your behalf.
If all you owe is $14,000, bankruptcy may not be a cost effective option, but if you owe several credit cards and/or other debts, bankruptcy might be something to consider.
If you decide to file bankruptcy, the minute we file your case electronically, the Citibank lawsuit will be suspended by something called the “automatic stay” of your bankruptcy.
If you file bankruptcy after a judgment is issued the automatic stay would serve to stop any on-going wage garnishment or bank account levy
Depending on the type of bankruptcy you file, Citibank’s debt can be wiped out or paid back over time under terms that you and your attorney propose.

Lawsuits and Bankruptcy in Florida

Clark and Washington encourages you to contact our office immediately after you are served with a lawsuit. As you can see from Fred’s story, Florida law gives you only a limited amount of time to react to a lawsuit before the lawsuit becomes a judgment and a garnishment of your wages and/or bank account.

Bankruptcy can be a solution to lawsuits by creditors and we encourage you to call our office at 813-345-5954 to schedule a free consultation to discuss your options.

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