By: Jeff Curl, San Mateo Bankruptcy Attorney

In my recent experience, these three credit card companies seem to sue more quickly than other creditors.  Counsel for Chase mentioned filing something on the order of 5,000 new cases per month.  With such voluminous filings, it is their hope and desire that your will either pay them, or go into denial, bury your head in the sand and not do anything. 

The reason for hoping that you do nothing is that in California, after your are served with a summons and complaint, you have 30 days to respond to the complaint.  If you fail to do so, the creditor can request a default – at that point, the debtor essentially “wins.”  The default permits the creditor/prevailing party to obtain a judgment for damages.  With the default and judgment in its pocket, a prevailing creditor can seek to garnish wages, levy bank accounts or seek a variety of other methods for enforcing its judgment.

If you are sued by debt collectors such as Zwicker & Associates, Winn Law Group, Mann Bracken, or J.P. Morgan Chase Legal Department that sometimes represent these creditors, do not ignore it.  That only invites invasive collection activities.  Sometimes fighting it reveals that the creditor cannot prove its claim.  Sometimes bankruptcy is inevitable anyways, and filing your bankruptcy petition will stop the state court case in its tracks.

If you are sued, seek legal advice right away.  It is always disappointing when a client comes to us after garnishment and bank account levies because they panicked and did nothing.  It is often the case that we could have filed their bankruptcy petition and prevented this in the first place, or that they may have had a viable defense.