[Talley1971]

Hi,
My wife is being sued for an old credit card debt (almost pas the SOL for Texas). This was charged off by the original creditor and now a collections company has filed a suit.

She has not received a summons and I have checked the county clerk for the actual record and it has an old mailing address.

My questions are:
1 - What can happen if we never receive the summons?
2 - Should we contact the creditor to work something out?
3 - If we receive the summons should we get a lawyer to handle the response and what would most likely be the outcome of this?

Thank you in advance for any repsonse.
Marc

[aaron]

1 - What can happen if we never receive the summons?

If they can't find her to serve her, they may seek permission to try to effect substituted service. If they follow proper procedure, it is possible that she would be held to have been "served" through substituted service even if the summons and complaint are not personally delivered to her.

2 - Should we contact the creditor to work something out?

You can try. Sometimes they will defer to their collection agency, once they have referred out the debt.

3 - If we receive the summons should we get a lawyer to handle the response and what would most likely be the outcome of this?

If the debt is valid, most of the time the result is a judgment for the debt, interest, and possibly attorney fees (to the extent allowed by local law and by the contract underlying the debt).