Despite appearances, being sued isn’t the most destructive thing that can happen to your business. When you receive a summons, Solosuit is here to help ease your stress by guiding you through the process of properly responding to a lawsuit.
One of the most unpleasant events in life is being sued. If you disregard a summons and complaint, the case will not go away; it will only become worse. This could lead to a money judgment against you by default in the courtroom. That might lead to your earnings being garnished, your bank accounts being frozen, or even your property being seized!
You might ask how to respond to a lawsuit? Well, scroll down
SoloSuit guides you on how to respond to a lawsuit debt
Address Every Point in the Complaint. The Complaint includes numbered paragraphs that detail the lawsuit. There are usually 10-30 numbered paragraphs in debt collection cases. Read each paragraph and choose your response. You have three options:
Admit. Accept the paragraph if you agree with it. Deny. Deny the paragraph to make the debt collector prove it.
Defendant denies the allegation of insufficient knowledge to know the truth or falsity. Just another way of saying that he or she doesn’t know if you don’t understand the paragraph or lack the information to respond, select this option.
One of these responses should be written after the corresponding paragraph number.
Deny everything to force the other side to prove everything. This works well in many cases.
Use Positive Defenses
An affirmative defense is a reason why the person suing you doesn’t have a case. You must include these defenses in your Answer or they will be lost. In other words, if you don’t raise your affirmative defenses now, you can’t raise them later. SoloSuit helps you assert your affirmative defenses.
Here are some common defenses:
- It’s not your debt account.
- The contract had expired. So you owe the creditor nothing.
- The deadline has passed. A statute of limitations is a legal deadline.
- The debt was paid or waived.
- Part of the debt is paid.
- You were a co-signer but were unaware of your rights.
- Those are just a few affirmative defenses. Inability to pay a debt is not normally a legal defense.
- Respond to the Court and the Plaintiff
After you’ve written your Answer, responded to the Complaint’s paragraphs, and stated your affirmative defenses, it’s time to file it. The Answer document is useless unless properly filed. It’s like doing homework and not submitting it. So you don’t have to buy a printer or figure out whether you need Certified Mail or Priority Mail at the Post Office.
Here’s how to file your answer.
- Duplicate your Answer.
- Send one to the court.
- Send the other to the plaintiff’s lawyer.
The attorney’s address is on the Summons and Complaint you received by mail. But where is the Court’s address? Good point, most Summons don’t list the Court’s address. And the mailing address is rarely the same as the physical address listed on Google. That’s where SoloSuit comes in.
