Sued Over a Debt, Warned of Possible Arrest Warrant

My question involves collection proceedings in the State of: Indiana
Process Server arrived and requested me at the door this morning, and he was from the local Kentucky Court, apparently.
He gave me a copy of a Law suit.
The details are as follows:
In 2013 I used an Indiana ER for Medical Treatment, in April, May, and August, prior to obtaining Medicare State Insurance through the Department of Community Based Services.
I live in Kentucky, and the Suit was filed by an Indiana Hospital directly over the border where I had gone in 2013.
The Process Server said that if I don't answer the Summons (it states that a written reply within 20 days is requested, not a personal appearance) that there will be a Warrant issued for my arrest.

I have no income. I am married, and have medical issues, and am on psychological medications also. My husband is unemployed, and lost his job in 2013, and since then we have been on welfare, Section 8, SNAP, and Wellcare of KY Medicare. He works odd/irregular jobs and basic work and makes less than 3000.00 yearly at this time.

We own nothing of value, except a 2001 vehicle, which is plagued with mechanical difficulties.
Our son, whom is 4yrs old, also has medical issues and has had many hospital treatments, and at one time surgery was suggested by his doctors. Though he appears to be getting better now.

My husband had a bankruptcy discharge in 2015, Oct. He went through KY Legal Aid to obtain that.

I have been to that same hospital MANY times for issues relating to my chronic ailment(s) since 2013, but had KY Wellcare Medicare since, and as such, of course, no other bills exists, since they were all taken care of by the Medicare of KY.

I have many questions, and a general one:
1. If I do not respond, though I have a typed response ready to send to both parties, will they attempt to issue an arrest warrant?
1.A. Even though I live in KY, and the suit is filed in Indiana, will they be able to place me in debtors prison?

2. Since I cannot afford legal representation, and even 5$ a month would be a hardship when we are almost always behind on bills, and save change to help with electricity, fuel, clothing for growing child, etc, and since I do not have time to get Legal Aid to even consider helping me, is my responding to the court via a written response the correct course of action?

3. Any general information/assistance/ideas/knowledge you deem useful to impart?

I have 19 days from today, to attempt to either obtain help, or ensure I am making the correct choices.

Thank you, in advance, for any assistance, information, etc. I apologize in advance, if I posted in the incorrect forum, or caused some other issue. However, I/we are in dire need of assistance/knowledge.

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1. If I do not respond, though I have a typed response ready to send to both parties, will they attempt to issue an arrest warrant?

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No. Nobody's getting arrested or prosecuted for this. The worst that can happen if you don't respond is that the Plaintiff will get a default judgment which will probably be a worthless piece of paper given your financial condition.

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1.A. Even though I live in KY, and the suit is filed in Indiana, will they be able to place me in debtors prison?

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There is no debtor's prison so that's not going to happen.

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2. Since I cannot afford legal representation, and even 5$ a month would be a hardship when we are almost always behind on bills, and save change to help with electricity, fuel, clothing for growing child, etc, and since I do not have time to get Legal Aid to even consider helping me, is my responding to the court via a written response the correct course of action?

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If you have any reason to believe that you don't owe the money or don't owe as much as they say, you would be wise to respond by addressing each allegation separately, then file your response with the court and send a copy to the Plaintiff's attorney. You can always decide to ignore it later, but responding to it now will give you some breathing space.

After you've responded, the Discovery period starts where you can send the Plaintiff a Request for the Production of Documents. You'll want any and all documentation of the debt. This will delay things for a while as a trial doesn't get scheduled until Discovery is completed.

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3. Any general information/assistance/ideas/knowledge you deem useful to impart?

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The reason you want to respond and delay this for as long as possible is you need time to close out your bank accounts, if you have any, so the creditor won't have any bank accounts to levy once the creditor gets a judgment. That's the second most popular method of enforcing a judgment after wage garnishment which, since you don't have a job, you don't have to be concerned with.

See if that local legal aid office can help you with this.

And the following search result contains guides to answering a complaint for debt:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=defendant+...laint+for+debt

First of all, thank you for your responses, and I have a few questions regarding such:

1. I realize that "debtors prisons" aren't supposed to be legal. However, I have seen evidence from searches that some states, possibly Indiana can and will issue warrants for either failure to appear/respond, or failure to pay.
So, I am more concerned of the loop-holes used by such systems to imprison me.

2. I believe I probably do owe the money, and for the sake of argument will concede that I did have those visits for treatment in 2013. However, the paperwork states I have "twenty (20) days to respond, and the Process Server made the statement "A warrant will be issued" when he tried to get me to open my door. I refused him having the door opened, and told him I don't speak to law enforcement without a legal representation. I made him speak to me through the door, and he finally left the paperwork by the door knob, and left. My concern was, again, based upon the trend towards imprisoning poor people these days.

3. You mentioned closing accounts. I am on a joint account with my husband. Should I have my name removed from his account? If I do so, does that suggest guilt, or in any way cause issues, to your best knowledge? To be honest, we literally normally have less than 20.00$ in our account, and only deposit needed cash from his odd-jobs, directly prior to using our bank card to pay for things like car insurance over the phone, otherwise our account has almost no money in it 99% of the time, and we don't have money to put in it. I/we don't have any "disposable" income, and certainly no extra cash for "savings" or to have sitting around in our account for anything other than specific bills. Our cash is more than "gone" and "owed" before we receive it.

I was also unsure of the laws between Indiana, and Kentucky, since we reside in Kentucky, and the Suit arises and is filed in Indiana. Further our only vehicle, which I mentioned being a 2001 model, is in my husband's name, and titled to him only. I don't even have a driver's license due to medical/psychological issues causing fear of driving, which subsequently caused me to simply let my license expire, and never attempt to renew it.

Again, I thank you for your time, and information, and sincerely appreciate both, sincerely. My husband is an honorably discharged U.S. Marine (1999-2003), and we have had nothing but problems since 2012 when we lost our home, and 90% of our possessions due to poverty, and it has been going downhill since. I am fearful of the tricks courts play to attempt to imprison, or file warrants, etc, and we both have almost no experience being on the side of criminal/civil allegations (except for his bankruptcy in 2015), as neither of us have records, and he has a degree in Criminal Justice. Even he is worried, since he has seen Indiana reports of imprisoning people for debt, and it being done via "circumvention or twisting of the law" (his words).

Again, I do not mean to take up your time, but we can't afford legal representation, and as such, we must go this alone. Legal Aid takes long periods of "waiting-list" time to even get approved help. In the meantime, we are doing anything we can to ensure this doesn't destroy us yet again.
So, thank you, again for time and information.

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1. I realize that "debtors prisons" aren't supposed to be legal. However, I have seen evidence from searches that some states, possibly Indiana can and will issue warrants for either failure to appear/respond, or failure to pay.

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Highly unlikely.

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2. I believe I probably do owe the money, and for the sake of argument will concede that I did have those visits for treatment in 2013. However, the paperwork states I have "twenty (20) days to respond, and the Process Server made the statement "A warrant will be issued"

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I don't believe him.

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3. You mentioned closing accounts. I am on a joint account with my husband. Should I have my name removed from his account?

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I suggest you have your husband go to a different bank and open an account in just his own name and get a new debit card. Do that ASAP and after he gets the card, you can close out the account in the old bank.

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If I do so, does that suggest guilt, or in any way cause issues, to your best knowledge?

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No. It's just a sensible precaution that millions of people do to ward off the vultures.

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I was also unsure of the laws between Indiana, and Kentucky, since we reside in Kentucky, and the Suit arises and is filed in Indiana.

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That brings up an interesting point. I do not believe that an Indiana court has "personal jurisdiction" over residents of Kentucky.

Read the following link for an explanation of "personal jurisdiction."

http://litigation.findlaw.com/filing...on-can-be.html

I think you can raise lack of "personal jurisdiction" as an affirmative defense and get the Indiana case dismissed so that the creditor will have to refile in Kentucky at some later date.

You would have to raise the defense in your answer and make a motion for dismissal. Here's where it gets complicated. I can't give you step by step instructions on doing that.

In fact, I think you might have to make that motion before you file your answer (a pre-answer motion).

And you'll have to use the proper wording.

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I am fearful of the tricks courts play to attempt to imprison, or file warrants, etc, and we both have almost no experience being on the side of criminal/civil allegations (except for his bankruptcy in 2015), as neither of us have records, and he has a degree in Criminal Justice. Even he is worried, since he has seen Indiana reports of imprisoning people for debt, and it being done via "circumvention or twisting of the law" (his words).

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I'd be interested in seeing where you folks got that stuff from. I've been on several legal websites for almost 15 years and have never seen a report of anybody getting arrested under circumstances you describe.

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Again, I do not mean to take up your time, but we can't afford legal representation, and as such, we must go this alone. Legal Aid takes long periods of "waiting-list" time to even get approved help. In the meantime, we are doing anything we can to ensure this doesn't destroy us yet again.
So, thank you, again for time and information.

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I'm fine with helping as best as I can but I am not a lawyer and there are limits to what I can tell you.

Get in touch with legal aid ASAP and see how soon you can get help. Meantime, do a google search in your city for "pro-bono" attorneys who are willing to help the indigent.

The VA has legal clinics for veterans. See:

http://www.va.gov/OGC/LegalServices.asp

I found the following information for Kentucky:

Ft. Thomas Domiciliary
1000 South Ft. Thomas
Avenue, Ft. Thomas, KY
41075

Ron Michaelson
LCSW
ronald.michaelson@va.gov
Elizabeth Brett
LCSW
elizabeth.brett@va.gov

Kim Ginn
Legal Aid of the Bluegrass
kginn@lablaw.org
(859) 431-8542

I don't know how current that is so emails and a phone call are in order.

The American Bar Association lists legal help for veterans on the following web page:

http://www.americanbar.org/groups/co.../kentucky.html

Don't be too concerned if these resources are not local, contact them all.

This is one of the sites I have seen some indication of such possibilities, though not the only one. I will continue to research.

"In most states, failure to appear can result in a contempt finding and subject to arrest to appear and answer for said contempt. Filing for bankruptcy will stay any related proceedings.

Though, this is specific to an order of appearance, which the order does not require, and specifies "in writing." I did see other indications of possible attempts to have warrants issued in the state of Indiana.
Again, thank you for your time. I'll keep researching, and finding what I can.

I don't trust any websites that don't cite statutes or case decisions and I tend to ignore them, as you should.

Here's what's true:

If you are found in contempt, you could be arrested. However, it takes a lot before anybody gets to that point.

If you are subpoenaed and don't appear, you could be arrested. Nothing in your case will subject you to a subpoena.

Generally, you might be arrested if you fail to obey a court order, but that also isn't going to happen for just ignoring a lawsuit. Millions of people ignore lawsuits every day and never get arrested.

The potential for an arrest warrant for a failure to appear comes if (a) you are issued a subpoena to appear in court, and fail to appear as ordered; (b) you are ordered by the judge to appear in court, and fail to appear as ordered, or (c) following the entry of a judgment, if all other collection efforts have failed, the creditor can seek a warrant to have you brought before the court. The consequence of failure to appear on a civil summons is normally the entry of a default judgment.

If you read the instructions on the summons that was served upon you, you will see that default, not arrest, is described as the immediate consequence of failure to appear and defend.

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Quoting adjusterjack

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That brings up an interesting point. I do not believe that an Indiana court has "personal jurisdiction" over residents of Kentucky.

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They do in some circumstances. In this case the Indiana court would have personal jurisdiction because the OP went to Indiana and got treated at the hospital there. For the purposes of this lawsuit, that is a sufficient contact with the state of Indiana such that the OP may be subject to suit in that state. When you go to some other state and transact business there you know you might be sued if you breach the contract that results and it is not unfair then for you to be sued over that in that state. After all, you made the choice to go to that state in the first place.

That is why I'm mentioning that, because NOWHERE on the paperwork does it mention the consequence for not replying within "twenty (20)" days. Nowhere.

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Quoting Mr. Knowitall

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The potential for an arrest warrant for a failure to appear comes if (a) you are issued a subpoena to appear in court, and fail to appear as ordered; (b) you are ordered by the judge to appear in court, and fail to appear as ordered, or (c) following the entry of a judgment, if all other collection efforts have failed, the creditor can seek a warrant to have you brought before the court. The consequence of failure to appear on a civil summons is normally the entry of a default judgment.

If you read the instructions on the summons that was served upon you, you will see that default, not arrest, is described as the immediate consequence of failure to appear and defend.

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My question then would be:
If judgment for the plaintiff occurs, whether "default," or otherwise, and they attempt collection efforts, and fail repeatedly:
A. What are the odds a warrant to produce me is sought and gained?
B. Who has jurisdiction over me at that point? I.E. Does Indiana have to request some sort of extradition, or does Indiana's Civil Warrant allow them to cause Kentucky to take me into possession?

This is complicated to me...


Edit:

I must have missed in my panic, the section as follows, where-in it covers the alleged consequence.

1. Summons (Exact wording below):
To the below named defendant or defendants:
You have been sued by the person(s) named "Plaintiff" ,in the court stated above. The nature of the suit against you is stated in the complaint which is attached to this document. It also states the demand which the plaintiff has made and wants from you. You must answer the complaint in writing to the court, by you or your attorney, within twenty (20) days, commencing the day after you receive this summons, or judgment may be entered against you for what the plaintiff has demanded.

The final sentence, explains the "consequence," of "default judgment," the "threat" of the constable caused me panic and blinded me to the final sentence, apparently. However, my questions posed above. are still relevant, and I'm curious about the odds of warrant if they fail to collect (which they will), and how that would be handled.

Thanks for all the responses, and you time, it is appreciated sincerely.

The only kind of warrant that could possibly be ordered is a bench warrant to appear in court, not an arrest warrant that would make you potentially subject to jail. I cannot imagine Indiana feeling it worth while to extradite over a civil monetary default judgment, although since you are right across the river its not absolutely impossible that it could happen.