- Have you been sued by one
of your debt collectors? Have you recently received a summons and complaint related to
a debt collection lawsuit? You're probably asking
yourself, what do I do now? Well, in this video I'm going to provide you with instruction on
how to draft an answer to a debt collection
lawsuit in three easy steps. Now I know when you receive the complaint and the summons, the process
server comes by your house, or the constable or the sheriff, depending on which
jurisdiction you live in, you immediately become panicked. You don't know what to do, you don't know how this
is going to play out, and you don't know the next step, as far as what you need to do. Well, in most jurisdictions
you're required to file a written response
to the allegations contained within the complaint and the summons. And in this video I'm
going to provide you, in three easy steps,
how to draft the answer, and I'm going to give
you one specific thing that you should not do. So let's go ahead and jump into how to draft an answer to
a debt collection lawsuit in three easy steps. So what you're looking
at here on the screen is your run-of-the-mill generic complaint. This is the document that
initiates the lawsuit that the debt collector
has filed against you. You can see in this
case that the plaintiff is Midland Funding LLC. They're one of the largest debt
buyers in the United States and they file hundreds of thousands of lawsuits throughout the country. And so I thought we
would use their complaint here as one of the templates. Now as you look at the complaint, and granted, this is a very bare-bones one that this law firm uses that only has four specific
allegations in the paragraphs. You can see the four
numbered paragraphs there. But I want to walk you
through what's in the document because that will help you,
as you draft your own response to this, as far as knowing
who the different parties are and what the different
parts of the complaint are. Now if we look in the
upper-left-hand corner of the complaint, this is where you're going to find the information for the attorney that's
representing the debt collector, the creditor, whoever the plaintiff is. These are the attorneys that they have hired to represent them. Now this becomes a point of confusion for a lot of people 'cause
some people will believe that the attorneys are the ones who actually are claiming
ownership of the debt and that they're the ones who're saying that they're entitled to payment. Typically that's not the case. So for instance, in this case, Midland Funding we can see
is the plaintiff in the case. However they're represented by this law firm called Bursey & Associates. This is a law firm that
does collection lawsuits and they represent creditors
down in Tucson, Arizona. So the reason why this
is important is because, one, now you know who is
representing the plaintiff, and two, you also know who you need to provide copies of anything
that you file to court, need to be sent to that lawyer's office. Down below that you'll
see we have the title of the court or the name of the court where the action is being heard. So this particular case was in
Maricopa County Justice Court in what we call our White
Tank Justice Courts. This'll vary obviously with
the names and what's required. Most jurisdictions don't
require addresses like this. This is specific to Arizona's
Justice Court system. Then in the caption itself we'll see we have the plaintiff
here, Midland Funding LLC. They're labeled as the plaintiff. They're the ones who're alleging
that they are owed money. They're claiming that
they own the account, they're the ones that are suing you, and they're doing it
through their attorneys, Bursey & Associates. Then below this you'll see you
will have a defendant listed. I've obviously bored out the names on this one 'cause this
is an actual complaint that was filed with the court, but this is where, if you're being sued, this is where you, and
maybe your spouse's name, would be listed as the
defendants in the action. Over on the right side of the caption we have the case number, which is, in this case it's
handwritten in by the clerk. But you'll need to
include this case number on your answer when you draft it so that the clerk of the court knows which case to assign it to. And then we see the title of the document. In this case it's a complaint. Your document will be called an answer, so you would write answer here. So the first thing you need to do is just get the caption right. This is step one, of
getting the caption right. Anything that you use in this lawsuit, as far as documentation going forward, you need to make sure
you have this caption. You need to have your name in
the upper-left-hand corner. So when you start to draft your answer, you're going to have something
that looks like this. And by the way, I can tell you this, in most jurisdictions, they don't care if it's on this numbered pleading paper. Most jurisdictions
aren't even going to care if you're handwriting it or typing it out. If you have a computer, if
you use the Microsoft Word, they actually have a legal
pleading template in there. So you could use that. You can put something like
this together pretty easily. But in the upper-left-hand corner, when you're drafting the answer, it's your name, your
address, your phone number. If your jurisdiction requires it, you're going to have
to provide your email. You have to put your information there, essentially stating you're
the party who's drafting this and so that the law firm that's
representing the plaintiff, they know where to send
things back your way when they have documentation. So it's important to give a good address because most courts
operate through the mail once the initial service of the complaint and summons has taken place. Then you need to create which
court it is, have the parties. Make sure you include the case number. And instead of complaint,
you're going to write answer, because that's what
it's going to be called. And in some jurisdictions the complaint is called the petition. You can still call what
you're filing an answer or a response, but in most jurisdictions it's called an answer. The next thing you need to do, step two, is that you need to respond
to the specific allegations in the complaint. So this is a very simple complaint. It only has four numbered paragraphs. And so if I'm responding to this, I'm going to look at each
of these numbered paragraphs and I'm going to look at the allegations that are contained within them. Then I'm going to state whether I admit or deny the allegations in the complaint. And if there's part of the, let's say like with
paragraph number four here, it states, "Defendants are in default "under the terms of the Debt. "The present amount owed
under the terms of the Debt "after all set-offs is $4,984." Unless you know specifically
how they calculated that amount or they've provided you with evidence on how they calculated that amount, you can honestly deny that that's the specific dollar amount owed because it hasn't been
proven and you don't know. You could even provide a third answer, which is that you lack sufficient
information at this point, and so right now you're going to deny it. So again, the best
three answers are admit, deny, or I don't know. You're saying I lack sufficient
information at this point, so I'm going to deny it. If any part of the paragraph that you're responding to is not
accurate, you can deny it. Now it's important to realize when you're filing documents with a court, you need to be accurate. You need to be truthful
in your responses to this. So if they're alleging that you had an American Express account and you did and they provide you with the specific account number and it matches the one that you had, you need to admit that. However, if there's something like this, where they're providing you with just a number that you're not sure how they came up with that balance, maybe it seems much higher
than anything you can remember, you can state that you deny it or that you lack sufficient
information right now. Now it's important that you go through each individual numbered paragraph and state whether you admit, deny, or you lack sufficient information to be able to respond at this point. After you've done that, that's
all you really need to do. Then you need to sign
it, and then you need to, third part, the third step, is you need to submit it to the court. Now you will file the
original with the court. However, you're going to
have to provide a copy to the law firm that's
representing the debt collector, in this case Midland Funding. You need to mail them a copy. Most jurisdictions, the court is not going to mail that for you. I've seen clients who were
representing themselves, where they filed their
answer with the court but they never mail a copy
to the attorney's office who's representing the debt collector, and then the wires get crossed and it gets a little bit confusing for the court and for the parties. So after you've drafted the answer, after you got the caption done correctly, after you've responded, stating you either admit, deny, or you
lack sufficient information to be able to admit, so you deny, each of the numbered paragraphs, you sign it, date it,
make two copies of it. Take the original to the court, file it with the clerk of the court. They're probably going to
charge you a filing fee, so you want to call ahead and
see exactly how much that is. And then you want to mail a copy, of the timestamped copy that
the clerk has given you, to the opposing counsel, to the attorneys representing
the debt collector, and then keep a copy for your records. So those are really the three
steps that you need to do: Draft a caption, respond
to the allegations, and then file a copy with the court. The answer is probably
the simplest document that you're going to deal with if you're representing yourself
in a debt collection lawsuit. Now I promised you I would tell you the number one thing you should not do in filing an answer with the court. Here it is. I see this one happen all the time. Instead of just responding
to the direct allegations in the numbered paragraphs
of the complaint, I see many people will come in and try to explain their situation or explain why they fell
behind on the underlying debt. They may come in and say
they had a loss of a job or a medical issue, or they may say that I've been trying to settle this for years with this particular creditor and they won't accept my settlement. You don't need to put any
of that in there right now. Frankly the court doesn't care
about any of that right now. What the court is wanting to know is do we have an actual dispute
between the parties? The plaintiff has put forth allegations. They want to know, defendant,
do you admit or do you deny those allegations that are
contained within that complaint? All that information may
be relevant down the road, but right now it could
actually harm your case because essentially if you go in and you're admitting to something that maybe you didn't mean to admit to because you don't have
the full information, as far as what the underlying account is, it could actually damage
your case down the road. So just really stick to admitting, denying, or if you don't know, it's fine to say you
don't know at this stage. You can deal with that later. But don't go into any kind of backstory. It's not relevant, not
needed at this point, and it could actually harm your case. So I hope you found that helpful, on how to draft an answer to
a debt collection lawsuit. If you want to get some
more information and tips, subscribe to this YouTube channel. I have over 100 videos on how to deal with these types of cases, particularly cases dealing
with jump debt buyers like Midland Funding, Portfolio Recovery. There's a lot of videos here. Subscribe and you'll get
those right as they come out. I appreciate you watching today.
