Re: Default Judgment NOW WHAT???

<jimbradley@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1151100564.336543.316720@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I just got a letter from the Mass. court notifying me of a default
judgment for failure to answer interrogatories... I just received a
letter from the layers with the interrogatories and a letter saying I
never answered them with a copy that had been filed by the court. I
never got any interrogatories from said law firm before this letter.
Should I go to the court on Monday and try to vacate judgment? is this
even possible?

It is possible. You need to file a motion asking the court to set aside the
default judgment. The motion must be in the proper form, and I can't advise
on that - I don't know what state your case is in or what kind of court.
You will need other sources on form and format. If this is small claims,
the court clerk's office might be able to advise, or direct you to a small
claims advisor. If this is not small claims, you will need to either get an
attorney to draft the motion or learn how to do it yourself.

Your grounds for the motion are that you didn't receive the interrogatories
on time, and therefore any proof of service of them is false. Depending on
what court you are in, it might be necessary to attach an affidavit
containing your testimony on the point and also attach the competed
interrogatories or proof of service thereof.

If you received the interrogatories by mail and you still have the envelope
and it is postmarked after or just before the entry of the default judgment,
you can prove that the law firm lied in it's proof of service and it's
application for default judgment (if there was one). That evidence will
make your motion a clear winner, at least, and might do a lot more damage to
the plaintiff's position. More details on that should be obtained from a
local attorney experienced with the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act.
You might have a situation where the money flows toward you rather than away
from.

Setting asside default judgments is common. The court is accustomed to this
sort of motion, and is probably biased in favor of granting them. That's
because there are too many plaintiffs and unscrupulous attorneys who falsely
certify that they served documents on the defendant. Such people count on
the fact that the defendant doesn't know how to prevent "sewer service" or
what to do about a default judgment.

Lets say there is nothing I can do. What will the law firm try and do
next? Can they access my accounts?

Yes. The plaintiff or the lawyer can take a certified copy of the judgment
to the sheriff and the sheriff will attach your bank account or any other
assets plaintiff can identify and locate.

I figure that they will garnish my
wages but if I arrange a payment plan with it keep them from doing so?

Nope. Plaintiff may voluntarilly agree to a payment plan, but might not.
Garnishment is easy. With a payment plan, if you stop paying, the plaintiff
has no recourse other than the garnishment they could have done in the first
place.

The lawers are working for a collection company if that matters...

That matters. Collection agencies have a bad reputation generally, and the
court is likely to believe your testimony that you didn't receive the
interrogatories on time. It's possible that the judge has faced motions to
set aside judgments improperly obtained by that collection agency many
times. If you put an attorney to work on getting the judgment set aside and
then doing whatever the next step is (depending on what kind of case and
what kind of interrogatories we are talking about), you might be able to
chase the collection agency and their attorney away altogether.

This answer must not be relied on as legal advice for the reasons posted
here: http://mcgyverdisclaimer.blogspot.com



McGyver


.

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