Sometimes doing nothing is the best thing to do.
Our office has received several calls from people that have been sued for credit card or similar debt that they have not been able to pay due to financial difficulty. They don’t dispute that the money is owed. They just don’t have the money to pay it. They don’t even have money to try to settle it. Now they have been served with a lawsuit and want to know if they need to get an attorney to defend them.
When you have been served with a law suit, you have two choices:
- You can make an Answer, which then requires that the Plaintiff prove its case against you; or
- You can do nothing, and the Plaintiff can take a Default Judgment against you.
If you owe the money, and have no defense, then filing an Answer does nothing more than run up the attorney’s fees (if they have one) to prove up their case. Those fees will likely be included as part of the judgment taken against you.
In other words, the more work you make the Plaintiff’s side do, the more it will cost you in the long run.
If there is no benefit to filing and Answer, such as raising a defense, you should consider if doing nothing might be a better option.
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