Keep Your Eye on the Ball in Debt Defense

If you are a pro se debt defendant, remember this: Keep your eye on the ball or you will lose.

It is a cliché in sports and the rest of life that one must keep one’s eye on the ball. Anybody who has played a sport involving a moving ball has had that simple idea drilled into his or her head a million times. And yet it may be the single hardest thing to do. There are so many temptations to look elsewhere.

It’s the same in litigation, and the difficulty justifies this tip. You must watch the action and remember that your case isn’t over until it comes back “dismissed with prejudice.” Until then, you must not let your attention wander too far from the lawsuit.

Of course I’m not saying you should think about the case 100% of the time. What I am saying, though, is that you must always know where you are in the litigation, how far from trial, whether you have what you need or a plan for how to get it, whether you have responded to all the things needing response, etc. Lawsuits are played out in life over a fairly significant amount of time – you just have to stay on top of it during that time.

Any lapse in attention could make you lose valuable rights or the case in general.

This may seem like simply a pep-talk, but actually it isn’t. You are living a whole life with a lot of things going on. I’m reminding you that while lawsuits can seem to proceed slowly and could seem to allow you to forget about them for stretches of time until the other side does something, this is really not the case. Organization, focus and intensity on your goal here are necessary if you want to have a chance.

Our materials at Your Legal Leg Up can give you a lot of help, and our mission is to help you beat the debt collectors. We give you checklists and samples, but we cannot really make you keep your eyes on the ball. That can only come with your decision to be in your case to win. You have an excellent chance if you stay on top of things.