Default judgment: How to vacate a judgment

If you have any outstanding debt with the creditor, and you have not repaid the same, the creditor can sue you to the court. When the creditor files a suit against you in the court, the court sends a summon at your address and you need to file a response to the summon within the date specified, otherwise the creditor may bring a default judgment against you from the court and recover the outstanding debt either through money judgment or judgment to garnish your wages. In some states in US, such as Pennsylvania, Texas and North and South Carolina, wage garnishment is not permitted and so a money judgment may be brought against you. Moreover, the creditor can also bring judgment to garnish your bank account so that as soon as any money gets credited in your account, it is taken away by the bank and deposited it with the creditor and this process will continue so long as the debt is repaid in full.

Now, if you have failed to file a response to summon for some reason or the other, and a default judgment has been brought against you and you are sure that you do not owe any debt to the creditor; you can always file a motion to vacate the judgment. Filing a motion to vacate a judgment means that you are filing an appeal to the court to dismiss the judgment. Motion to vacate a judgment must be filed within 30 days from the date of the default judgment. However, this period may vary from state to state. You need to fill up a form where you have to fill up a declaration in support of your motion and give reason for being absent at the hearing. It is also necessary to state the reason as to why you do not agree to the default judgment. If you have asked for debt validation from the creditor and the creditor did not respond to your validation request within 30 days from the date of receipt of your letter, you can show this as a cause as a reason for filing the motion to vacate the judgment.

After filing the motion to vacate the judgment, the court notifies the plaintiff about the motion you have filed to vacate the default judgment. It may happen that the creditor or the collection agency that has brought judgment you might contact you to settle outside the court. If this happens, then ask them to dismiss the judgment and to inform the collection agencies they have appointed, to stop the process of debt collection from you and get this in writing. You should also ask them to remove the listing from the credit report. However, you should always take note of the fact that you should not go for debt settlement outside the court if the Stature of limitation for the debt has expired.

It may also happen that the creditor might not contact your before the hearing date and even on the date of hearing the creditor may not be present. In such cases you may win the case by default and the judgment will be dismissed. You should obtain a copy of the court order that the judgment has been dismissed and produce it before you employer or the bank in order to stop garnishment. Even if the creditor appears before the court on the court date, and fail to produce necessary documents in support of their claim that they owe the debt, for example, a proper debt validation, then also the judgment would be dismissed.