Why Answering A Debt Buyer Lawsuit With “I Don’t Have A Job” Or “I Don’t Have Any Money” Is Not Effective
As more and more Alabama consumers come to see us about being sued by debt buyers, we are seeing more answers that have been filed by our clients. One type of answer is becoming more popular and we wrote this article to explain why it is not a good idea to put on your answer that “I have no job” or “I have no money” or “I only draw disability income”.
In your answer you need to tell the court what your position is – do you admit you owe the debt? (Given that we have never seen a debt buyer prove in court that it owns the debt we don’t know why you would do this). Do you deny owing the debt? What are your defenses?
We can’t tell you how to answer the complaint but we can tell you that saying to the court that you don’t have money or a job is not a proper answer. It leaves it up to the court to decide if you are really admitting you owe the debt and just don’t have the money to pay (which is no concern of the court) or if you are denying that you owe the debt.
Remember this – a court’s role is to give a fair trial to everyone. What happens with the judgment is not a concern to the judge. Whether the defendant can pay the plaintiff is not of any concern to the judicial system.
We understand that many people feel that if the court or collection lawyer (such as Zarzaur & Schwartz, Nadler, Nathan & Nathan, Ingram & Associates, etc) knew the dire financial situation you are in they will make the lawsuit go away. That doesn’t happen in our experience. It is not that the court or the collection lawyers are unkind – it is simply that in their role as a judge or collection lawyer representing the debt buyer that your financial ability or condition is just not relevant to whether you will have a judgment against you.
If you want to settle your case – that is fine – just make sure you get your agreement concerning the payment terms, tax issues, credit reporting issues, etc. in writing. If you want to fight the case that is fine also – make sure you file your answer in time and properly defend yourself in court. But don’t put “I don’t have a job” or “I don’t have any money” in your answer – we have not seen that accomplish anything except sometimes it causes the court to think you are admitting you owe the money and then the court will enter a judgment against you.