Skip to main content

Don't Ignore Lawsuit Documents

When you are sued, the lawsuit documents are called a summons and a complaint. When you are served with a summons and complaint, you can either move to dismiss the complaint, or you have to serve an "answer" within 20 or 30 days of being served.

If you don't make a motion or serve an answer, a "default judgment" will be entered against you, which can mean that whatever relief the complaint was asking for, the plaintiff will get. This happens a lot in debt collector lawsuits. Debtors get sued, ignore the lawsuit documents, then wake up one day to find that their bank account has been frozen because the debt collector served a restraining notice on the debtor's bank.

Default judgments are often vacated because cases should proceed on their "merits". But in a recent case an appeals court refused to vacate a default for a pro se (she had no lawyer) plaintiff. The plaintiff was served by "leave and mail" service where the papers were left at the door of the plaintiff's home and were also mailed. The appeals court held that this was proper service and that the plaintiff had no reasonable excuse why she had not served an answer. She also tried to submit new evidence on a reply in her motion to vacate, which was not proper.

Two lessons from this case: (1) Don't ignore a lawsuit against you thinking nothing will happen; and (2) When you are sued, you need to hire a litigation lawyer because a good lawyer may have found a wrinkle to get the default vacated.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Being Fired for Things an Employee Did On Their Own Time, Outside of Work: Legal or Not?

New York is an "at will" employment state, meaning that, in the absence of a contract, you can be fired at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all, unless the reason is based on something like age, race, religion, disability, etc. (just a handful of categories). (Government employees have more protections than private-sector employees, such as First Amendment protections.) One of the few exceptions to the at-will employment rule is New York Labor Law §201-d. The statute is lengthy and has lots of caveats and qualifiers and defenses (for the employer). But the gist of § 201-d is that an employee can't be disciplined or fired (or not hired) for something they do on their own time, away from work, that is legal, and that is not against the employer's interests.  The statute and the reported cases mostly deal with "recreational" and "political" activities, and the cases can turn on whether something was a "recreational activity...
Post a Comment
Read more

Insurance Companies Trying to Gag Superstorm Sandy Victims?

As reported in several news articles ( this one  is free), in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy, engineering firms were hired by insurance companies to inspect the homes of people making claims for flood damage.  There have been allegations that two of the engineering firms, U.S. Forensic out of Louisiana, and GEB HiRise out of Uniondale, forged property damage reports in order to deny claims. The NY State Attorney General is investigating those allegations and wants to talk to the homeowners.  At the same time, there are about 1,800 lawsuits in federal court involving the insurance coverage claims. A three-judge panel is trying to expedite resolution of the cases.  Last week it was revealed that one of the insurance companies, The Standard Fire Insurance Company, which is a subsidiary of Travelers Insurance, drafted language in a settlement document saying that any homeowner who accepts a payout of their claims cannot cooperate with the criminal invest...
Post a Comment
Read more

Recent Case Developments: Court Finds Breach of Contract of Oral Agreement/Loan

In November, 2014, plaintiff and defendant agreed that the plaintiff would loan the defendant $200,000, and the defendant would pay him back in 4 installments of $50,000 over the next year. The defendant made the first 3 payments (totaling $150,000), but not the last payment. The plaintiff then sued for breach of contract for the remaining $50,000. There was nothing in writing, just an oral agreement. It appears that as soon as the defendant served his "Answer" to the "Complaint", the plaintiff moved for summary judgment (a kind of mini-trial on paper). The evidence included the cancelled check for $200,000 and the records of payments totaling $150,000. The appeals court held that, although there was nothing in writing, the oral agreement was enforceable as a contract and held that the plaintiff had proven his breach of contract claim.  The defendant had argued it was too early in the case to decide such a motion, that more evidence needed to be gathered (called...
Post a Comment
Read more