Getting served court papers is not something to take lightly. If you have been served with a summons and a lawsuit in California, you will only have 30 days to respond to the lawsuit. Your response to the lawsuit has to be submitted in a certain format. You will not be able to simply submit a letter or make a call to the other attorney or court.
If you fail to submit a timely response, the Plaintiff in the lawsuit will be able to submit documentation to the court to have the court enter a default judgment against you. If a default judgment is entered against you, the case will end and you will be deemed the loser. Consequently, even if you have a legitimate defense to the lawsuit, you will never be permitted to submit your defense to the Court unless you file a motion to set aside the entry of default. Therefore, it is extremely important that after you are served with a lawsuit, to timely seek out representation from a competent business litigation and/or civil litigation attorney for representation.
You should sit down with your litigation attorney and go over the allegations in the lawsuit so your litigation attorney can advise you on the best course of action to take. If your time to respond to the lawsuit is about to expire, your litigation attorney can request an extension from the Plaintiff to give you and your attorney additional time to plan a response to the lawsuit.
In order to assist your litigation attorney in providing representation, you should write out in your own words, your response to the factual allegations in the complaint. If you do not have time to write out your response to the factual allegations in the complaint by the time of your initial visit with your civil litigation attorney, you should do it as soon after your meeting with your attorney as possible so your attorney will have all of the facts necessary to plan your official response to the lawsuit.
If you need help in deciding how to respond to a lawsuit after you have been served, contact> an experienced and accomplished civil litigation attorney, such as the ones working at Wade Law Group. We have a proven track record of success and have won awards in the area of client satisfaction and as a top performing attorney.
Things to Remember:
- Only 30 days to respond after getting served court papers.
- Proper formatting in your response is critical.
- Failure to submit a properly formatted response can result in a default judgment against you.
- A default judgment can only be altered by filing a motion to set the previous outcome aside.
- Legal representation is paramount in avoiding these dire consequences.
- A litigation attorney can request an extension if your time to respond is about to expire.
- Your response and your attorney work together to achieve a positive outcome.
LinkedIn: Amiel Wade