Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Nebraska

Re: Need help - judgement filed against me - what now?

The law firm is certainly aware of the exemptions you are entitled to so if you are 100% covered, I would send them a letter with an Affidavit (a notarized sworn statement) of your assets and "countable" income which is your net or after tax take home pay. Any voluntary deductions such as to a savings account are generally not exempt.

Law firms are generally not staffed by stupid people either who would want to waste their time if they couldn't collect anything. Doing as suggested above would be what I would call being "pro-active." You have probably given them all the information they could obtain by law anyway so they most likely will either put your file away and contact you again in, say, a year.

Most states have a law than says debtos must provide certain information in response to written question sent to them. These vary from state to state but New Jersey's is fairly typical. If your go to our state's Judiciary website at http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/rules/rules_toc.htm you will find our Court Rules. Scroll down toward the bottom and select Appendix XI-L "Information Subpoena. You can download it with adobe acrobat and see the type of questions that can be asked.

I don't know how much money you owe but it's unlikely that a law firm would continue to pursue you if you took the initiative to show hem they'd be wasting their time.

However, I offer a bit of unsolicited advice which you can take or leave. In our country, credit is almost a way of life and it's best not to start out with negative information on the profile that credit repoting agencies maintain. You cannot rent a car for example without a major credit card. Also, typical debts may only be reported to credit bureau's for 7 years but since you let it go too far, you will have to wait 3 more years because judgments can be reported for 10 years. However, even though it may remain on your record, if you demonstrate an effort to voluntarily pay off this or any other delinquent debt, this is likely to be looked upon favorably by other creditors who will consider you less of a risk than people who stick their heads in the sand and hope these things will go away. In fact they do eventually but until then you are at risk if you get a job witha good salary or buy a nice car that a creditor will try to take it by surprise. So as soon as you are able, contact whoever is collecting the debt and propose a payment plan you can afford. If you get a raise and can pay more, do that. It's not just that you are in debt but it's a "bad" debt so the sooner you can pay it off, the better. Oh, a final word: if you got into this siyuation because you feel you cannot handle credit then avoid those tempting offers that come in the mail for credit cards at19.99% interest or more. If it wasjust a youthful lesson in life, consider it like college tuition for all that you have learned.

I wish you the best of luck in this and all your future endeavors.