Is It Hard to Defend Yourself When You’re Sued for Debt?

People often ask me whether it’s “hard” to defend yourself from the debt collectors.

Of course it depends on what you mean by “hard,” but defending yourself certainly isn’t hard compared to what most of the people asking me the question are used to doing. It’s hard to work all day at something you don’t like to do. It’s hard to work double-shifts. And it’s hard not to be able to buy the things you need… Those are examples of things that are actually hard.

What makes defending yourself difficult is the amount of work — although there can sometimes be quite a bit (it is usually spread out over time) — or anything else you actually have to do. What makes defending yourself hard, sometimes, is psychological. It’s taking on something new, going into court and challenging the other side. It may be staying on top of details. It is, in other words, changing habits and venturing a little bit into the unknown.

You may have a habit of not looking closely at your credit card bills or the letters debt collectors send you because you hate seeing what’s there. You may have a habit of not standing up for yourself when you think you might owe someone some money. And you certainly don’t have a habit of going to court or filing documents with the court.

These are all little things if you take them one at a time – it’s only when you look at them all at once that things can seem overwhelming. You have time in litigation, you can learn what you need to know. And you’ll save yourself enough money from taking on the debt collectors so that you don’t have to do some of the really hard things quite so much.