Entry of Appearance and Other Essential Red Tape

There are some things you need to do to take care of your rights when you're pro se. They aren't sexy, but they are necessary.

Entry of Appearance, Style of the Case, and Signature When You're Sued for Debt

If you are going to defend yourself in a case brought by a debt collector, you need to know what an “entry of appearance” is, what the “style” of the case is, and how you should “sign” your pleadings and what that signature means. These three things aren't sexy so they're easy to overlook and hard to write about in a way that won't put the audience to sleep. 

But you must know them if you're going to defend yourself, so prop up your eyelids and read on!

Entry of Appearance

An entry of appearance is your formal “introduction” to the court, your announcement that you will be defending yourself. When lawyers do it, the entry includes a bar number, proper address, and the assertion that [the lawyer] will be representing certain specific clients in the matter. Where there are several parties to the suit, this can be helpful as a way to keep track of which lawyer represents which clients. When you are representing yourself and are not a lawyer, you cannot represent anyone else, so the entry becomes more of a formality.

Sometimes the court waives this formality. And if you have begun representing yourself but have not filed an entry of appearance, and if the other party points out that you have not, every jurisdiction I know of will allow you to fix the problem then.

Style of the Case

The “style of the case” is its name: “Debt Collector vs. Joe Consumer” plus the case number, and often the court. Every pleading should have the style on it. If you are being sued, you will find the style on the first page of the petition, and if you want to sue somebody, just take a look at another case that has been filed to see what information is put on the style for cases in that court.

Signature

Every pleading must be signed. That is, literally signed by hand. The rules also require some information below the signature: a printed or typed version of the name, phone number, and address. These days most jurisdictions also require an email address as the litigation process has become increasingly more computer-driven. Failure to sign means the pleadings could get stricken.

When a person signs pleadings, their signatures generally (are required to) signify that they have done some “reasonable” checking of the facts and legal claims and found that they are at least “arguably” correct (and hence my occasional argument that the way debt collectors use computer records and automated processes violate the rules and are an “unfair” debt collection practice). If the court finds that the person was too far afield, it can punish them with “sanctions.” Non-lawyers, in general, are held to much lower standards and can, as a practical matter, say almost anything without worrying about sanctions (check your rules of civil procedure). 

Of course you will want to make powerful and reasonable arguments based on facts you can prove in order to win your case, but it's nice to know that the courts are reluctant to penalize you for trying when you push the envelope a little bit.

What to Do

For information that will radically change the way you see the debt law process and greatly increase your chances of winning, please see Ending the Debt Nightmare. For information on many issues that come up in debt litigation and materials you can use to defend yourself, go to YourLegalLegUp