If I have a default judgment against me, but I wasn’t served, what can I do?

If I have a default judgment against me, but I wasn’t served, what can I do?

Unfortunately, most lawyers will tell you that there’s nothing you can do.

Or, they’ll say that you have 14 or 30 days to do something.

The key is whether or not you were served by the debt collector that’s suing you.

If you have questions about being served, you can read this article and also contact us about your supposed service in Alabama.

If you were served, then you have limited options.

But if you were NEVER served, then you consider filing a motion to vacate the judgment.

This is where we go to the judge and say, “Hey, I want you to set this judgment aside.”

In addition, we need to provide evidence to the judge that we couldn’t have been served when the debt collectors says we were served.

How do we do that?

Well, we look and see if we were even in Alabama when we were supposedly served.

Maybe we were out of state for business when they “served” us.

How do we prove that?

We give the court our airline tickets, credit card receipts, gas station receipts, etc.

Anything that shows us being somewhere other than in Alabama.

Maybe we were in the hospital when they served us.

We pull out our medical records, show the judge when we were admitted to the hospital and when we were released.

Or, maybe we don’t even live in Alabama anymore.

In this case, we show the judge our lease papers for when we moved to another state.

You could also bring out your state power bill.

We’re looking for anything that can prove you couldn’t have been served.

We had one guy who was sued in Birmingham, but he lived in Texas.

So we brought out all of his pay stubs, etc.

He even had a receipt from when he got gas right after work!

We were able to show that it was impossible for him to have been served in Birmingham.

Here’s another example.

Let’s say that a debt collector serves Jack Smith at your home.

They say, “Jack Smith is an adult who lives with you.”

However, you don’t know a Jack Smith, much less one that lives with you.

Then you put that in an affidavit, or a sworn statement.

We want the judge to be overwhelmed with evidence because we want the judgment set aside.

Every time we file a motion to vacate, we want the collection lawyer and the judge to look at it and say, “Wow, that’s more than enough evidence that this consumer wasn’t served.”

Once the default judgment is set aside, everything that follows it will go away as well. 

That includes garnishment of your wages and bank account, the seizure of your property, etc.

Ultimately, our advice is to get in touch with a lawyer. They will let you know if you have a good case.

Get with a lawyer and find out your best course of action.

They will let you know if you can be successful or not.

Just remember that vacating the judgment doesn’t mean that the case is over.

If you live in Alabama, you can give us a call at 1-205-879-2447, or fill out a contact form and we will get in touch with you quickly. 

We’d be glad to answer your questions and help you figure out the right path for you.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

-John G. Watts