Finding Your Way Through Litigation

The Materials of Your Legal Leg Up

This guide, based on the debt law process, should help you find which materials in this site will help you the most. You should bookmark this page and come back often.

Debt litigation is a sort of journey starting long before the suit is filed. The process can take a pretty long time, but wherever you are, there are opportunities to improve the situation. My site generally deals with that part that involves litigation or the immediate preparation for litigation, but you will improve every aspect of the trip if you look after your rights along the way. You can get out of this, and it starts with keeping the damage to a minimum. It almost goes without saying, but for complete guidance throughout the debt process your best bet is to get and read the Litigation Manual. That will help you understand the debt process so that you can prepare for all the steps from the beginning. If you just need a few answers, you'll probably find them below.

Debt Trouble

The journey usually starts with being late with some payments. It goes through the dunning/bill collection phase, from almost casual reminders to pay by people who seem to like and respect you through, all too often, some very nasty debt collectors. All along this part of the story, you are torn between trying to work things out with the debt collectors and either trying to avoid them altogether or trying to assert some control over the process. For help with this stage of the process, you can find essays and videos at Debt Troubles. Or see Ending the Debt Nightmare.

Litigation

Litigation starts with filing and serving the suit, moves through the discovery phase where the sides learn some things about each other and the facts, and then heads into court. On the way, you'll have to decide whether service of the suit on you was adequate, whether the court has jurisdiction over you, how to answer the summons or whether you want to file a motion to dismiss, and whether or not you want a jury trial. The Litigation Manual fully addresses these questions, but for a start you will want to see the Start of Suit materials.

Discovery

The discovery process is the way parties to a lawsuit discover what kind of evidence each other has. You'll find general information on the process in the Discovery section. Specifically, you'll want to consider interrogatories, requests for production, and requests for admissions.

Motions

Next come the motions. If the won't give you the documents you need, you'll need to file a motion to compel. Debt litigation often depends on filing a motion to compel production. Because it's so important, I have developed a specific product to help with that, get the Motion to Compel Pack. If you think the facts established by the evidence provided in discovery could prove conclusively that you should win some part of the case, you'll want to file a motion for summary judgment. In debt law cases, though, it's usually the debt collectors who file motions for summary judgment, so you'll need to defend yourself from summary judgment. And then there are various pretrial motions you'll need to consider. Start by looking in the Motions section for articles and videos about all the motions.

Trial

You need to prepare for trial. And finally, post trial motions and appeals if necessary. For that you'll need the Litigation Manual for materials on how the trial is run and how to prevent unfavorable evidence from coming into the case by making objections. You'll find some help for on that in Trial Information.

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