Law question regarding letter I received from Attorney?

I received a letter from an attorney and I cannot afford to get my own attorney. A long story short, when I was married there were 2 debts that have now turned into lawsuits. The attorney wants me to sign stipulated judgments which I have been told been not to sign, but my question is should I even reply to the attorney telling him I have no money and that in my divorce decree my X husband said he would take care of them or should I just leave it alone. I simply don't want to open up a can of worms by a reply.

I had thought about writing a letter telling the attorney how destitute I am and that I cannot afford anything, but unsure if I should write anything to the attorney and just let them do whatever they are going to do. Just wondering.

thanks

ronimg

Call your localbar association and ask about legal aid. You need to get these cleared up right now. There are collection agencies with lawyers that will file a lawsuit against you -- even though you are not responsible, just so they can scare you to pay them. My firm has handled several of these type of lawsuit this year, and we were able to get all of them dismissed.

Inundated in SF

You really should get an attorney to make sure by connecting to that lawyer you aren't committing yourself to something. Look at your divorce decree to make sure it truly does say that by signing it, your husband took responsibility for everything. If it doesn't say that, then your divorce decree did NOT relieve you of those debts. You and your husband should have signed a financial responsibility paper saying who was responsible for what and how communally owned things and communally owed thing would be handled--and your divorce lawyer should have done that. Telling the other attorney that you have no money won't make any difference (everyone would be pleading poverty if that worked).

bdancer222

How old are these debts? The Statute of Limitations (SOL), the timeframe to bring lawsuit, varies from state to state. Check here for yours: http://www.bcsalliance.com/statute_of_limitations_on_debt.html. Typically the SOL starts from the date of last activity or last payment. Making a payment will restart the SOL.

If the debt is beyond the SOL, send the attorney a certified return receipt letter telling him to cease and desist all contact as the debt is beyond the SOL. If they do sue, the SOL is an affirmative defense.

If the debts are not beyond the SOL, send a certified return receipt letter request validation of the debt to include copies of contract and other documentation that proves the debt is yours. They probably don't have it and you can use this in court -- creditor failed to validate.

Do not sign off on the judgment. Make them take you to court.

It makes no difference what your divorce paperwork says about who is responsible to pay the debt. If both you and your ex signed the contract, the creditor can come after one or both of you. If you do have to pay, you can drag your ex back to court to get reimbursed if the ex was suppose to pay the bill.

Zilla

there are attorneys that you can get for free! they are called pro-bono lawyers! you do not need to pay a penny unless you win and get a settlement! its very fair, and you do get all the answers from them as well as consultations! I wouldn't sign any stipulated judgement unless i had ALL the details, everything ANSWERED before making any decision, those lawyers will screw you over if you don't have your own lawyer! You should not be responsible for the debt if you have evidence of your ex saying that they would be responsible, if it is recorded or written down! perhaps you could set up your ex and record them in a conversation and pull the evidence from them that way! In any court issue, you almost always need evidence to back up your claims. It wouldn't hurt to give it a try! Also, it will feel a lot better to look back on the issue knowing that you did everything that you could to avoid it or even dissolve it!
I hope they rule on your behalf, friend!
best of luck!
also, check out this site, it has a lot of legal rules you can look at.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode28a/usc_sec_28a_07000012----000-.html

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: