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What to Expect If Your Debt Case Goes to Court

Written by Hannah Locklear
Last updated on May 21, 2026

Summary: Being sued for debt and worried about going to court? Here's what to expect: file an Answer first, understand the trial process includes opening statements and testimony under oath, and know that settlement is possible at any stage. Solo can help you respond to lawsuits properly, and SoloSettle makes negotiating with collectors easier without phone calls.

Getting served with a debt collection lawsuit can feel overwhelming when you have no idea what happens next. Millions of Americans deal with debt collection lawsuits every year, and understanding the process can help you make informed decisions about your case.

Yale Levy, a former debt collection attorney with over 20 years of experience, recently shared his insider perspective on what really happens when debt cases go to court. Having represented creditors and debt buyers in thousands of cases, Yale offers a behind-the-scenes view of how the legal process works and why most collectors actually prefer to settle out of court.

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Creditors selected you for a lawsuit after other collection efforts failed

Before your case reaches a courtroom, creditors have already tried multiple approaches to collect your debt. The process usually starts with letters and phone calls from the original creditor, followed by efforts from one or more collection agencies over months or years.

The lawsuit is typically their last resort after other collection efforts failed. Filing a lawsuit is expensive because creditors must pay court costs and legal fees, so they use algorithms to identify accounts most likely to result in successful collection. If you've been sued, the creditor believes you have the ability to pay through income or assets.

This is what you can expect after being served with a debt collection lawsuit

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Filing an Answer prevents default judgment and keeps your options open

You have between 14 and 30 days (depending on your state) to file an Answer to a Summons after being served. This is the most critical step because it prevents the creditor from obtaining a default judgment against you. About 95% of people who get sued by debt collectors don't file an Answer, which means they automatically lose.

In your Answer, you respond to each allegation in the complaint and raise any affirmative defenses you might have. These could include arguments that the debt is beyond the statute of limitations, that you don't owe the debt, or that the collector can't prove they own the debt.

If you need more time to prepare your Answer, you can request an extension. Most courts will grant reasonable requests for additional time, especially if you're representing yourself.

Respond to debt collection lawsuits fast with Solo.

The court will issue a scheduling order with important deadlines

Once you file your Answer, the court will issue a scheduling order that sets important deadlines and your trial date. Trial dates are usually scheduled six months to a year after you file your Answer, though in some courts trials can be scheduled as soon as 30 days out.

The key is to open and read all mail from the court so you don't miss these critical dates. During this time, you have opportunities to negotiate a settlement with the creditor, which is often the best outcome for everyone involved.

What to expect during the actual trial

The courtroom environment is professional but less dramatic than TV

If your case proceeds to trial, you'll encounter a judge who keeps the process moving, a bailiff to maintain order, and a stenographer documenting everything that's said. The atmosphere is generally professional and businesslike, less dramatic than what you see in TV courtrooms.

Sometimes you might be the only case being heard, while other times there could be 20 or 30 people in the courtroom for various matters.

Trials include opening statements, testimony, and closing arguments

Debt collection trials follow a standard format with opening statements from both sides, followed by testimony under oath. The plaintiff will present their case first, followed by your opportunity to present your defense.

During testimony, the creditor's attorney will ask you basic questions about whether you opened the credit card account, whether you used the card, and whether you made payments. They might show you statements or other documents and ask you to confirm you received them.

You'll also have the opportunity to ask questions of the creditor's witness and present your own evidence. This is where you can challenge whether the collector can prove they own the debt or question the accuracy of the amount claimed.

The trial concludes with closing statements, and the judge makes a ruling either immediately or after consideration. If you're representing yourself, prepare by organizing documents you want to present and make multiple copies for the judge, opposing attorney, and stenographer.

Settlement negotiations can happen at any stage of your lawsuit

Everyone involved prefers settlement over the uncertainty of trial

One key insight from Yale Levy's experience is that everybody involved in debt collection lawsuits wants to settle if possible. Attorneys don't enjoy spending hours in court any more than you do. Trials are time-consuming, unpredictable, and expensive for everyone involved.

Most debt collection cases settle for somewhere between 75% and 90% of the original balance. The key advantage of settlement is that you maintain control over payment terms and often pay less than the full amount owed.

You can negotiate through phone calls, attorneys, or digital platforms

You can negotiate settlement through several methods: calling the law firm directly to explain your financial situation, hiring an attorney to represent you, qualifying for legal aid services, or using SoloSettle to make offers online without all the stressful phone calls.

Let's consider an example.

Bobby was sued by a debt collector for $8,000 on an old credit card debt. He used Solo to file his Answer within the required timeframe, preventing a default judgment. Rather than go to trial, Bobby used SoloSettle to offer 60% ($4,800) paid over 18 months. After some negotiation, the collector agreed to settle for 70% ($5,600) with a payment plan that fit Bobby's budget. Bobby avoided the stress of trial, saved $2,400, and gained control over his payment schedule.

Settle your debt for less with SoloSettle.

Settlement negotiations can happen at any stage of the lawsuit process, with many cases settling right before trial when both sides want to avoid the time and expense.

Ignoring your debt case leads to serious financial consequences

Judgments allow creditors to garnish wages and freeze bank accounts

If you lose at trial or fail to respond to the lawsuit entirely, the creditor obtains a judgment against you. This judgment gives them powerful collection tools that can significantly impact your finances.

Wage garnishment allows creditors to take money directly from your paycheck—as much as 25% of your take-home pay in some states. Unlike voluntary payment plans, you have no control over when these garnishments occur.

Bank account attachments let creditors freeze and seize money from your accounts. They can take almost everything except for certain exempt funds like Social Security benefits, though there are usually statutory exemptions that protect a small amount.

Property liens can be placed on your home or other real estate. While creditors rarely force the sale of your primary residence, the lien must be paid before you can sell or refinance your property.

Social Security and disability income have protections from garnishment

If your only income comes from Social Security, disability benefits, or other protected sources, you may have some protection from garnishment. However, you still need to respond to the lawsuit and actively claim these exemptions.

When creditors attempt to garnish protected income, you typically need to file an objection with the court explaining that the funds are exempt. This process requires you to be proactive about protecting your rights.

These common debt lawsuit questions come up frequently

Recent questions on The Debt Hotline illustrate common concerns people have about debt lawsuits going to court.

One caller asked about dismissal without prejudice versus with prejudice. When a creditor dismisses a case without prejudice, they retain the right to refile the lawsuit later. A dismissal with prejudice means the case is permanently closed. If a creditor offers dismissal without prejudice, it may be worth negotiating for dismissal with prejudice instead.

Another common question involves debts that have been sold to collectors. Yes, debt buyers can still sue you even if they purchased your debt from the original creditor. However, they must be able to prove they own the debt and that you owe the amount claimed.

Questions about arbitration also come up frequently. Some credit card agreements require disputes to be resolved through arbitration rather than court trials, but settlement is often still possible before the arbitration hearing.

Here are your options if you already have a court date

If you have a debt collection lawsuit pending, your first priority should be filing an Answer to a debt Summons if you haven't already done so. This single step prevents default judgment and keeps your options open.

Consider whether settlement makes sense for your situation. Even if you can't pay immediately, many creditors will accept payment plans that fit your budget. The key is to be realistic about what you can afford and consistent with your payments.

Remember that going to court doesn't have to be the end result. Most cases settle before trial, and settlement often provides better outcomes for consumers than risking an uncertain trial verdict.

For expert insights on navigating debt collection lawsuits and what to expect in court, listen to the full interview with Yale Levy on The Debt Hotline podcast. His 20 years of experience representing creditors provides a valuable perspective on how to protect your interests throughout the legal process.

Solo's tools can help you respond appropriately and negotiate favorable settlements without the stress of dealing directly with collectors or attorneys.

Transcript

Hannah (01:17):

Hello everybody. Thank you so much for tuning into the debt hotline. My name is Hannah Locklear. I am a part of Team Solo and we are the hosts of the Debt Hotline. Every week we like to answer people's questions about debt and help people find resolutions to debt and help them negotiate settlements or respond to debt lawsuits if they've been sued. So if you have any questions about debt, you can always give the debt hotline a call. Our phone number is zero one six one three eight one eight one and like I said, we collect questions throughout the week and we respond to questions twice a week. So yes, we are excited for the topic for today, which is what to expect if your debt case goes to court. Super excited to have Yale Levy join. So Yale is actually a member of Team Solo, but in his past he was a debt collection attorney and actually founded his own debt collection law firm. So he has a lot of experience on both sides of the litigation spectrum of what it's like to navigate a debt collection lawsuit and we're super excited to have him share his expertise and tell us a little bit more about what to expect if your debt does go to court and maybe other ways that you can prepare for court. Yale, thank you so much for joining. Do you want to take a moment to tell us about yourself?

Yale Levy (02:38):

Yeah, thank you Hannah for the nice introduction. Again, my name is Yale Levy. I'm based in Ohio. I was a correction attorney as Hannah said for 25 years. I had an office that represented creditors and debt buyers and collection agencies from around country in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland. We use the legal process, IE the court system to collect debts that people refuse to voluntarily pay and that means we filed lawsuits against them like many of you might have received, and we used the legal process to recover that money either through voluntary payments from consumers when they got sued or for some unfortunate people we used bank garnishments and bank attachments and wage garnishments to take money from people that did not pay once we obtained judgment. So again, I've done this for a very long time. Over 20 years started from three people.

We had about 110 people when I saw my practice and was then hired by Solo to help them in the client development stage. My duties at Solo is to get creditors and law firms to engage in settlement offers that they receive on SoloSettle, which is one of the products that Solo has. It allows consumers to initiate settlement offers with their debt collector and we send them the debt collector and we hope the debt collector will respond to the offer either by making a counter offer or by accepting, and that's part of my job is to get people to engage with the consumer offers that they receive.

Hannah Locklear (04:32):

Love it. And so you have about 20 years of experience as a debt collection attorney on that other side and now you're on team Solo and you're trying to bridge the gap between creditors and collectors and consumers to try to make settlement more frictionless, more possible and easier to navigate for, especially for consumers, but for everyone involved.

Yale Levy (04:53):

Right, exactly. We are now totally impartial. It is a win-win when a consumer makes an offer and a creditor accepts that offer. Both parties win because we've done lots of research on this, Hannah, and an ideal settlement as fast as possible is what everybody wants. So we try to help that process out by getting rid of phone tag, hold time, emotions and allowing people to use an online portal that we have to a platform to allow them to communicate digitally, avoiding hold times, avoiding phone tag, avoiding emotions, and just dealing with dollars and cents and trying to get cases settled, which is what everybody wants.

Hannah Locklear (05:38):

Yeah, I think in most cases the ideal outcome would be to settle the debt, right? To just pay off even if you can pay off a portion of it, but to settle it so that you're not having to worry about it coming back up in the future. So yeah, I love that. And again, we're going to be discussing what to expect if your debt case goes to court. I was hoping maybe we could ask you a few questions to kind of speak to that topic, Yale, since you have so much expertise in that topic. So my first question for you is what can a consumer expect as far as the timeline of a typical debt collection lawsuit goes? What does it usually look like?

Yale Levy (06:20):

Okay, so that's a great question Hannah. So again, creditors have tried to send letters, make phone calls to consumers to have them voluntarily pay their debts. Some people do pay their debts when the creditor reaches out to them, and when I say creditor, I mean the issuer of the credit card. So it could be JP Morgan Chase, it could be Capital One, it could be Discover, it could be Synchrony Bank, and those are the major ones out there, but there are hundreds of different issuers that issue credit cards. Even like Navy, federal Credit Union or different credit unions in your states all have collection departments internally to try to get cases settled. Unfortunately, many, many consumers don't want to communicate with the creditor, so the creditor then hires a third party, typically a collection agency to try to do a second talk off, which would be calling and sending letters to the consumer from a third party from the collection agency asking the consumer to voluntarily pay or settle the amount of debt that they owe.

Usually that goes between one and three up to five different collection agencies might be contacting the consumer asking them to pay the debt either by verbally talking to them on the phone or via mail. If that doesn't happen and the collection agency can't voluntarily recover the money, the creditor then takes those accounts back and makes a decision to either send it to a law firm to sue, sell it to a debt buyer for them to try to do it or to close it and just keep trying internally themselves. Again, my expertise was the law firm. So some accounts based on different matrixes and algorithms that the creditor has qualify for suit to suit is an expensive process. So by going through the suit stage on the cost of poker has now gone up because now the creditor has a pony up and pay some court costs to the court to file the suit.

So before that happens, the law firm would send a demand letter to the consumer, maybe two or three and make some phone calls to the consumer trying to get them to voluntarily pay the law firm instead of the collection agency or the creditor. Unfortunately, many people do not respond to those attempts and leaves the law firm no other option but to file a lawsuit against the consumer, again, there's a fee to file the

lawsuit. There's legal time involved, so we use our best efforts to try to find those consumers that we think are most likely to pay. Once the lawsuit is filed, it takes a life of its own. The consumer also not the defendant has to file an answer to that complaint or answer to the summons. Usually a summons is attached to the complaint. The summons basically tells you how long you have to respond to the complaint, but the complaint is a demand for payment in a legal format and you typically has between 14 to 30 days respond on it.

Every state has a different time period to do that response. Yes, you can request an extension of time to answer a summons. That is called a motion for an extension of time. If you go to SoloSuit.com, we do have an AI engine that helps people draft motions and you could say, can you draft me a motion for an extension of time to file an answer to a complaint or summons? You can do that. I believe the fee is $10 just to be completely transparent here or you go online and try to find it yourself. But for all of you on this call today, what you need to know is you got to respond to the summons with an answer or a motion to extend time to file an answer at a later date. If you do not file an answer, most likely you'll get a default judgment taken against you.

Not all the time, but the majority of the time. If you go to SoloSuit.com, Hannah has written some beautiful blogs about how to file an answer, how to respond to a complaint, what affirmative defenses means, and that is some legal jargon. That means do you have a defense to that complaint like it's outside the statute of limitations, fraud, et cetera. So you go to the blogs that Solo soup provides to consumers free of charge and you could look into seeing how to answer that complaint, but you need to answer every single allegation contained in that complaint as well as any affirmative defenses that you might have. Now, if this is all confusing to you, you could always go look for an attorney to try to help you. You could also read Hannah's blogs. They are fantastic. She did a really good job trying to boil it down to make it easy for people to do self-help.

And then you could use Soto Suit, which is a program that Solo has or a product that Solo has, which is like a legal zoom product that allows you to answer questions and based on your answers to your questions, it makes an answer for you. You could also go to many courts have free clinics that also help people that are per se, meaning representing themselves to file those answers. So that's all important things to know. Once you file the answer that usually a scheduling order comes out where it says, Hey, there's these deadlines to file motions and that there'll be a trial date usually six months to a year, and the date the answer is filed. Now sometimes those will be some courts and some states the trial date could be 30 days out. So what you need to do, and I know this could be foreign to many of you, is you need to open your mail and read it and understand what they're saying.

If you don't do that, you're going to end up losing. So that is a very important footnote that everybody on this call needs to be reminded of. So again, the trick to a case is communication. So with all this legal stuff I just talked about, anytime in the spectrum or during the duration of the suit, you are able to contact the collector or the law firm or the attorney and try to settle the case. You could do that in many different ways. One way to do that is by picking up the phone and talking to somebody. Another way to do that is taking some money out of your pocket, hiring an attorney to help you who knows what they're doing. Another way is try legal aid. Unfortunately legal aids are pretty overwhelmed with criminal cases and domestic violence cases that they do have one or two people dedicated to debt collections, but it's probably not enough to handle the volume of people that come to see them.

Or you could use our product from Solo called SoloSettle, which allows you to digitally make a settlement offer to the collection law firm or the collector and try to settle it yourself over time. So there's many options there. If you do not settle the case at the end of the process, there will be a trial. Again, I went through high school, I went to four years of undergrad and then three years of law school to understand how to do a trial. Many people can do it on their own. It takes a lot of research. It's a very foreign situation for many people. The courthouse is not always very inviting, but again, it is open to the public and you could go there and try to defend yourself. And again, for many people that they do actually owe them money as settlement of 80% or more or less, a little bit less, a little bit more is probably a win because that way interest stops usually, and you could try to get the case settled.

Hannah Locklear (14:56):

It's super helpful to know the whole process and to know that even if you have been sued, it's not too late to negotiate and settle the debt. And in fact, if you file a response to your lawsuit that could actually get you some leverage to negotiate outside of the court setting and then settle the debt before your court date. You can avoid the whole intimidating trial process altogether by settling before court. So I think that's a really good point, and Mike Yale said, we have a tool at Solo called SoloSettle that can help you connect you with creditors and collectors and law firms alike and help you negotiate and settle your debts before going to court. You don't have to be sued to use the tool, but if you have been sued, it's still a really great tool to help you negotiate and navigate that legal process.

Make sure that your rights are protected and make sure that once you find an agreement with the creditor or collector that the agreement is documented and your payment goes through safely to them. So great response to that question. Yale, I did have a follow-up question. If you could maybe briefly explain what happens during hearings and trials for debt collection lawsuits. I think that's a big question that Solo users have. If they have a court date coming up, what should they expect to happen during the hearing, especially if they haven't negotiated and settled the case yet?

Yale Levy (16:20):

Right, okay, so if you have to go to trial, you need to be ready to answer under oath questions asked by the attorney of you and you have the ability to ask the witness for the plaintiff questions as well. So what you need to do is answer truthfully because you're under oath and be honest with your answers to the questions. You got to be very careful to understand each question that is asked of you because you don't want to misrepresent or misstate the answer to the question. There will be a judge sitting on a bench elevated, typically that looks down and keeps the process moving. There's also somebody called a bailiff who is there to keep order in the courtroom, and then there's another person, another court official called a stenographer. Typically sometimes they use a team machine, but it takes down a recording of all the testimony that is provided during the trial.

So all those things happened. You have the ability to do an opening statement, the plaintiff has an ability to do an opening statement. Then questions are asked by both parties for the plaintiff and the defendant, and then there is closing statements which could be used to summarize what the testimony was at that trial. Again, there are many, many resources on the internet available to you about how to do a trial, what questions to ask on a debt collection case. Typically for a defendant, they'll be asking about who owns the debt, what was the foundation for record keeping for the amount, and how did they come up with amount owed? The plaintiff's going to ask the consumer or the defendant questions such as, did you open the credit card? Did you use the credit card? Did you make payments on the credit card? Did you receive these statements?

Did you receive this last statement, this balance due and owing, and then you under oath have to answer to those questions. It is not a very fun process for some people. It's very intimidating to be questioned under oath in a courtroom. Sometimes you are the only one in the courtroom. Other times there could be 20, 30 people in the courtroom all listening to your responses. So all those things are happening at the same time. It's something that you need to maybe prepare ahead of time for and get your ducks in a row. If you have any exhibits that you want to introduce into evidence to back up your defenses, you need to make multiple copies of those so that you can provide one to the judge, one to the plaintiff, and one to the sonographer so that you have those exhibits ready to go.

Hannah Locklear (19:29):

Love it. That is a great I think response, and I think most people feel very intimidated when they think about going to court because they picture kind of like a trial movie setting where there's a judge and maybe the judge and all the witnesses are yelling and there's drama and the attorneys are screaming and it's just this big legal battle. I don't think that's typically how it usually works for a debt collection lawsuit. In many cases, if they can't figure out a resolution right there on the spot, the judge may even give the plaintiff and the defendant some time to negotiate and settle or the judge will just make a ruling. Right. So it can be a very intimidating process, but again, one way to avoid having to go to court and navigate all that is by settling before your court date and Yale. Would you agree? Would you say that most attorneys would rather settle before going to court? Wouldn't it save them time and money to be able to settle outside of the court process?

Yale Levy (20:24):

My gosh, Hannah, it's like you an attorney or something. Yes, everybody wants to settle because they don't want to go to court either. Sometimes it's far away from their office. Sometimes it takes two to three hours to get through the court process, so everybody does want to settle. Now some people do want a hundred percent, that's real, but it does happen. Most people do settle somewhere between 75 and 90% of the balance owed. Again, for you consumers, that is always a good deal because if you don't settle and you end up losing the case, there's going to be additional court costs if they start doing garnishments and bank attachments and you'd lose control over when your payments are due. So if you settle, it's great because you can have some input into how much and when the payments are made. If you don't do that and the judgment is taken against you and they find what bank you bank at or they find where you are employed at, then they could do something called a wage garnishment and now you have no say in how much is taken from your paycheck and how often.

It's usually once a month. In Ohio, for instance, it's 25% of your take home pay. In other states that could be different. I am only licensed in Ohio. I don't know about other state laws, and a bank attachment is the same thing. There's a statutory exemption amount. If they find your bank account, bank could take almost all your money except for anything that's exempt like social security, veterans benefits, disability, unemployment, and then there's a statutory amount of a couple hundred bucks. Anything over that could be taken from you and used to pay off the judgment. There's also something called a judgment lien, which means that they place a judgment on your house, on your property if you own a home, and then when you try to sell it, you can't sell it without actually paying off that lien first. So again, that's why settling a debt with creditors and collectors is advantageous to the consumer because you now have control over how much, what the monthly payment will be and when the payment will be coming out. So to me, that's a win.

Hannah Locklear (22:49):

Yeah, for sure. I think settling, even if you end up settling for the full amount, you say, I'm going to set up a payment plan and just pay off the debt. That could be maybe a better outcome than just ignoring a lawsuit, getting your wages garnished, you end up having to pay post-judgment interest. You could pay thousands more than you originally owed, and like you said, Yale, you don't have control over when those payments come out of your bank account. So setting up that payment plan, even if you end up paying the full amount, which in many cases you could actually negotiate it down to where you're settling for a percentage of the original amount that you owed, that's obviously going to be a better outcome than having to owe extra money on interest and then not having control over when that money comes out.

Yale Levy (23:31):

Yeah, the lack of control to me is the biggest negative. We'll correct. To answer Steven's question, Steven said, I'm in mass and the only source of income is social security. My trial date is 9 23. I did put in my answer that social security was my only source of income. Should I call the attorney or just wait for the trial? Again, Steven communication is the golden rule in everything in marriage, in business and in litigation. I would suggest you reach out to opposing counsel, tell them that all you have is source of security that you don't have any other assets, if that's true, and maybe he'll let you off or give you some kind of low settlement to get the case resolved, but I would reach out to him ahead of time. I would hate for you to go down to court right around for nothing.

So I would always recommend communication. You could do it through Soto Settle or you could just call the attorney directly and try to get that case settled. For Mr. Man's Brickhouse films, can they force the sale of your property or it just be a lien on your property? Well, yes, they can force a sale. It is a very unusual process. It's a really unusual for them to do that because it's very expensive to do a foreclosure. So typically they just let the lien sit on the property and wait for you to try to sell it or refinance the house, and that's when they get paid. But again, I am not licensed. And your state, Mr. Man, and I'm just giving you hypothetical responses to these questions, Liz net says, how likely is it for them to garnish wages due a push or loan debt? Is that likely if you end up settling? So Liz net, yes. If they get judgment against you and they find your place of employment and you have not reached a settlement with them, there is a good chance that they will try to garnish you courageous. And again, I don't know what state you in, I don't know if your state has wage garnishments, but if they do that it would be a very viable possibility.

Hannah Locklear (26:03):

Yeah, so you definitely don't want to ignore the opportunity to settle. Let's see. So Yale, we've got some questions that were submitted to the debt hotline. Again, our number is 8 0 1 6 1 3 8 1 8 1. For anyone listening who has questions about debt, you can submit a question there via voicemail. We have some great voicemails that came in with questions. I wanted to address some of those questions with you Yale, if that's all right.

Guest 1 (26:27):

Here's my question. I'm on SSI, that's the only thing I get deposited into my bank credit card company says they're going to freeze my account and take my money. Are they allowed to do that? Since I'm only on SS, I don't have any other assets whatsoever. I rent, I basically live on the SSI only.

Yale Levy (26:52):

So that's a great question. Again, they can try to hold up your social security, your SSI payments by filing a bank attachment. If they do that, you need to go down to the courthouse and file an objection to the garnishment saying that is exempt property. Assuming in your state that SSI is exempt, which I assume it's exempt in most states, but again, I cannot guarantee that I would go down if they do gun issue or do a bank attachment. I would go down and object to that saying it is exempt assets. What I would do proactively if it was me and you or my friend, I would say call the creditor. Tell them or the law firm tell them I only receive Social security SSI. It is exempt. I have no other income other than that. Do not garnish me because I'm telling you that this is a true statement and that'll cause undue hardship on me. And that might help maybe avoid having to go down to court and dealing with getting your money back because I'm assuming you need that money to live on.

Hannah Locklear (28:12):

But it's true Yale, that in most states, if your only income is social security, that it will probably be protected from wage garnishment, correct?

Yale Levy (28:22):

Well, bank attachment.

Hannah Locklear (28:24):

Bank attachment, but not wage garnishment.

Yale Levy (28:26):

Well wage. Well, it's not a wage, it just goes into the account.

Hannah Locklear (28:30):

Oh, okay.

Yale Levy (28:30):

It's just a bank attachment.

Hannah Locklear (28:32):

Gotcha.

Yale Levy (28:32):

But again, whoever that was, I hope she's listening again, open you mail because you'll get notice of the bank attachment and hopefully you could contact them early enough and file your exemption or objection saying that this is SSI and it's not attachable.

Hannah Locklear (28:51):

Awesome. Thank you Yale. Okay, we've got another question.

Guest 2 (28:55):

Yes. Hello. My questions are first, I guess I have to, well, I want to thank you guys for doing this. You're empowering small guys against these huge corporations. The debt I owe is approximately $10,500. Who is contacting me about the debt is an attorney for Discover Bank, Kent Bailey, Ross and S, and yes. Well, I guess I am getting sued, but I answered to complaint and then it spit back. My question is, so I did the answer to complaint following the guidelines online there, which was great, but then we got an order assigning to arbiter, so this is what we got from the Superior Court state of Arizona. In the county of Yavapai. It says with the case number and order assigning to arbiter. So just trying to figure out what this step is, and I'm assuming it's like a third party, an alternative dispute resolution coordinator. So I'm just trying to figure out and would like to know what is this step? Is this where we work on settling a negotiation? Obviously I'm not going to pay $10,000, I'll settle or should I keep fighting it not to pay anything? I mean, what are my options here at this step and kind of the timeframe? And do I meet with someone in person? Do I go to a different court? I mean, how does this step work? That's basically my question. Thank you.

Yale Levy (30:47):

Well, great. So a DR or alternative dispute resolution is an in court settlement process where the court provides a safe place for the parties to talk to each other and try to settle the case. Now we deal with TRO a lot here at Solo. They really do respond pretty quickly to a SoloSettle offers. So if you don't want to go to court and you want to try to get this done frictionlessly without having to take off time from your job and go down to the courthouse, you could use SoloSettle to try to make a digital offer to settle the account. Again, they're not going to take 50 cents on the dollar, but they might take 75 or 80 cents on the dollar to get it settled over time. And you could do monthly payments for 12 to 24 months. I think that would be a very viable offer on a $10,500 debt if you would rather go down to court and see somebody face-to-face, that works as well too.

Again, I'm not trying to dissuade you from not going to the arbitration, but if it was me, I would try to do it either over the phone or via SoloSettle before the arbitration date and try to get the case settled before then to save you some time and money because you have to go down to court and you have park downtown and wait and miss some work. But if you want to go down and do the A DR, I think that'd be great. You could see somebody face to face, you explain your situation and there'll be a neutral third party in the middle or they'll, you tell them what you want and they'll reiterate it to the attorney. The attorney then will come back with what they want and then the arbitrator will tell you what the attorney said and they'll go back and forth.

They can by playing telephone. So I think you're in a good spot. You have lots of options there. I like SoloSettle because I'm a young guy and I like using digital. So by doing it online it goes a bit faster, but if you want to go down a court and do it and that's you, right? And that's why the court has it to help people try to get these cases resolved. So either way you go, it's going to be a win-win, but I think the trick is to have realistic expectations about how much you get off. I don't think it's going to be 50% or 60% will probably be something north of that, but maybe you'll be able to get some time like 12, 24, 36 months to pay it over. So instead of paying it out one time, you get paid over two to three years.

Hannah Locklear (33:31):

Perfect. Okay. Let's see. So our next question comes from Greg.

Guest 3: Greg (33:37):

Hello there. Hi, my name is Greg. I actually am being sued by a collector who bought a debt from Capital One. Basically I got sick, unable to work, and I basically was applying for disability in the process of me not being able to work, they sued me and actually hasn't gone to court, but court dates have been set just recently. The collector, I don't know by way of whatever, they must have found out either they didn't have all the information or they found out I'm on disability now. And so now they sent me paperwork saying they want to dismiss the case, but they want to dismiss it without prejudice. And I didn't like the fact that they wanted to dismiss it without prejudice. So I sent back and said, why don't you dismiss this with prejudice? And I haven't gotten any response. I'm just wondering, do I understand they want me to sign this thing they sent me that says dismissal without prejudice, should I sign, send that back, or should I just wait to see if I get a response from them? I know this is kind of lengthy, but the court date is not scheduled until next month in October. And then I had two capital, capital ones. They have both of them. The other one is scheduled for November. But thank you for your time. I hope I can get at least an answer. I see that you have a jet I'll be watching called YouTube today. So thank you for your time and I hope you have a great one. Bye-bye.

Yale Levy (35:32):

Boy, what a great, great question. I think, again, I'll go back to my standard response here. Communication is your best friend. So I would call the attorney that sent you that notice of dismissal without prejudice and try to convince him to make it with prejudice. Again, in most states, and now I know what state you're in, you could only dismiss twice. So if they dismiss a second time, it's always with prejudice, but the first time is without prejudice, giving you a second, giving them a second bite of the apple. Since you are on disability and they're coming to you, I would try to finesse it, call them, communicate with them, and try to see if you get a dismissal with prejudice out of them. Again, you thinking about it is great, but if you don't communicate that to the lawyer that's sending you that communication, it's never going to happen because they won't know why they need to dismiss it with prejudice.

So if it was me, I would call the attorney, talk to them and see if you could convince them to dismiss it with prejudice. That is your best case scenario. Again, the second best case scenario would be a dismiss without prejudice. That means there is a chance that they will turn around and file a suit against you. Again, it's interesting that they are doing this on their own accord. So maybe there's a problem with a case or maybe it's your disability, I don't know. But I think you're in a good position. I would take a second bite at the Apple and call them and try to talk about doing it with prejudice and see why they won't.

Hannah Locklear (37:25):

Love it. Yeah, I mean my guess is the reason that they're, they're trying to do it without prejudice is because they're hoping that someday Greg will no longer be on disability and will maybe have some sort of an income, then they can refile the case. That would make sense to me, but maybe there's something else going on with the case too, like you mentioned. Alright, well I think we've got time for maybe one more question. We've got another one from Stacy that I can play here. So let me go ahead and queue up her question.

Guest 4: Stacy (37:58):

Hi, my name is Stacy and I wanted to actually have a few questions. One is if my debt was sold to a credit score and I was never notified of that debt being sold, can they still sue me? So I am actually being sued and my debt amount is 6,000. I did call the original owner of the debt and let them know that I had lost my job and I wanted to go ahead and work out a payment plan with them. They couldn't go any lower than what I could do at that time. My other question is once the judge sees it, could you negotiate the amount of the debt to settle it? This particular debt? Yes. Like I said, I had contacted the creditor, the original creditor kept them up to date with what was going on with my financial situation, and then I couldn't pay it anymore because I had lost my job. Thank you.

Yale Levy (39:04):

Yeah, so she had two part question. The first part is yes, desk can be sold. So if the original creditor decided that they no longer want to keep the debt on their books, they are able to sell that to somebody called a debt buyer, which is a person that buys debt from creditors and then sues them themselves. So yes, that is an option. And to your second part, yes, I recommend you communicate with the debt buyer that has your account now or their lawyer and try to settle the case. Most debt buyers and many creditors always will entertain settlement offers from consumers. Again, the days are 20 and 30% are few and far between, but that does happen occasionally. I see many debts settling in the 75 to 85% range, but again, we do have the whole gambit. Some counts do settle for a hundred percent on the dollar.

Other accounts maybe settle for 20 or 15% on the dollar. It just depends on the creditor, the law form, your specific circumstances. So all those different factors do play a very meaningful role in how much the lawyer or the collector or the creditor will accept in the exchange for resolving the account. But the only way you get there is by communicating with the collector that has the account. And again, one more time, there's many ways to communicate. You could pick up the phone and call them. You could hire an attorney to help you represent yourself. You could go to Legal Aid and see if they have capacity to help you with your case, or you could use our product SoloSettle, which is a digital collection platform that allows consumers to initiate settlement offers with their creditors to try to get cases settled. Again, in our opinion and my opinion as settlement is a win-win for everybody, it provides finality and it provides guarantees. So again, as long as you can make the payments to do a settlement, make a budget, make sure you agree to something that you can afford to pay. Don't be all up in the clouds thinking, oh, I could pay $800 a month if my disposable income after all my bills only two 50, that ain't going to work. You got to get a payment plan that can fit in your budget every single month, month in, month out until the debt is paid.

Hannah Locklear (41:53):

I love it. And just to clarify too, with SoloSettle, basically all you have to do is get on the portal, respond to some questions about your case. Our software will actually kind of help you walk through and break down your income and the amount of money that you have versus the expenses, your monthly expenses and whatnot. And it'll give you a few options of different offers that you could make and probably help you weigh your chances of getting those offers accepted. And then from there you can select what number you want to send to offer to settle the debt. So that's really all it takes is respond to a few questions about your debt, how much you owe your income, et cetera. And then our software can help you send that offer, negotiate with the collector, and then settle and make sure everything gets documented. So awesome. Well, Yale, thank you so much for sharing your expertise.

Yale Levy (42:48):

Thank you, Hannah.

Hannah Locklear (42:49):

Very educational. We really appreciate you taking the time to join and help respond to these awesome questions. Thanks everybody for submitting your questions, for listening in for tuning into the podcast. Before we close, I just wanted to make a quick announcement that currently we are hosting another giveaway at Solo and it is our dance and in September giveaway, so the dance and in September, debt payoff giveaway is basically Solo's way of helping someone clear their debt. The average amount that people get sued for who use Solo to respond to the lawsuit is $4,700. So in September, we are going to pick a lucky winner to pay off $4,700 towards their debt and there's no strings attached. Basically all you have to do is go to SoloSuit.com/giveaway, fill out this little form. It'll ask you for your name, your email address, your phone number, so that we can contact you in case you win, and then your state and the amount of debt that you owe, and you can enter daily to increase your chances of winning the grand prize of $4,700. But yeah, it's just our way to give back and try to help someone clear their debt. Head on over to SoloSuit.com/giveaway during September to enter for the giveaway. Alright, well I think that's it, Yale. Any last words before we close?

Yale Levy (44:13):

Again, the trick to life, everything in life is communication. You need to find a way to communicate with a law firm or correction agency that is trying to correct on you. They're not bad people, they're honest, they will help you. All you need to do is communicate and there's so many different ways to do it. Thank you.

Hannah Locklear (44:36):

Yep. Love that. Thank you everybody again for listening. If you need to respond to a lawsuit, head on over to SoloSuit.com if you want to negotiate and settle. We can also help you do that through our tool called SoloSettle. Yale, Thanks again for joining and thanks everybody for listening to the Debt Hotline.

Disclaimer: The information presented in this podcast is intended strictly for general informational purposes and should not be construed as legal, financial, or investment advice. Solo and its hosts are not licensed attorneys, financial advisors, or other certified professionals. While select guests may hold active professional licenses, their contributions are purely for educational and thematic discussion. They're not delivering professional or personalized advice. Solo is not a law firm, does not offer legal representation and must not be relied upon as a substitute for professional legal counsel. It is also not engaged in debt, settlement, credit repair, or financial counseling services. Solo provides self-directed software tools designed to support users in navigating their own legal and financial situations. Participation in this podcast does not establish an attorney-client relationship. Listeners are encouraged to consult with attorneys or licensed professionals for guidance specific to their circumstances. The opinions expressed by podcast participants are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or official positions of SoloSuit Inc. Doing business as Solo or any affiliated organizations.


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