By Ryan C. Wood

There are a number of ways to stop a credit card lawsuit and filing for bankruptcy is one of them. Unfortunately credit card interest rates have been allowed to become out of control. Every state has usury laws limiting the amount of interest a lender can charge. Many years ago the Supreme Court of the United States of America ruled that a company doing business in one state can charge all other citizens of other states according to the usury laws of the state they are doing business in. This resulted in a few states getting rid of their usury laws and the result is 29% interest rates on credit cards and the rest is history.

Please continue to read this article for possible ways other than filing bankruptcy to stop a credit card lawsuit. Filing for bankruptcy protection initiates the entering of the automatic stay. The automatic stay stops any and all credit card lawsuits. It is possible for a credit card company to ask the bankruptcy court for permission to continue the lawsuit in state court. It is very rare for a credit card company to have the right grounds for the court to allow the lawsuit to continue in state court. When you file for bankruptcy protection before the credit card company obtains a judgment the underlying debt is still an unsecured debt that should be eligible for discharge. Whether you qualify to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case and discharge all of your debts depends upon your income, expenses, assets and sometimes the amount of your debts. During your free consultation will discuss your circumstances to determine how bankruptcy can help you. Just because you have the one lawsuit does not necessarily mean you have to file for bankruptcy protection though. If the lawsuit is only for $2,000 then filing for bankruptcy protection would not be cost effective. If you have other credit card debts, unpaid taxes, persona loans, repossession, foreclosure or wage garnishment then filing for bankruptcy will most likely be cost effective. If you do qualify to file a Chapter 7 case the actual case once filed should take 100 to 120 days. The only appearance you should have to make is the 341 meeting of the creditors. Bankruptcy is federal, so the court you appear at is the federal court for the district you live in, not the county state court. You will receive notice from us as soon as your case is filed and you will receive notice of the date and time of the meeting of the creditors directly from the bankruptcy court seven to ten days after the case is filed. We do our best to make the process as smooth as possible by providing you with updates throughout the process and providing checklists of the documents we need to draft a complete and accurate petition for bankruptcy protection.
There are other ways regarding how you stop a credit card lawsuit and it depends upon your circumstances. Of course the simplest but probably most difficult way to stop the lawsuit is to pay off the debt. Given the credit card company has filed a lawsuit means paying off the debt is not an option. Entering into an installment or payment agreement can stop the lawsuit under certain circumstances too. Again, this requires a payment to be made that is probably not possible. The credit card company will most likely want their attorney fees and costs paid for given they incurred this expense when filing the lawsuit. This will make it more difficult to make the payment each month. So this remedy is probably not possible.

Another issue is whether you were served with the summons and complaint properly. The credit card company must file a proof of service declaring under penalty of perjury how, where and when you were served with the summons and complaint. If the service was not proper then you could have the lawsuit stopped and make the credit card company serve your properly. The problem with this scenario is the credit card company will most likely be able to turn around and serve you properly and now you are right back where you started from. A lawsuit is pending against you.

Another issue is whether the underlying debt is even legally enforceable? In California a law now exists to make credit card companies or collection agencies verify they have a right to enforce the debt and that the statute of limitations has not run out making the debt legally unenforceable. If the debt is not legally enforceable then the lawsuit should be dismissed. There are a number of ways regarding how to stop a credit card company lawsuit. It all depends upon your circumstances.