Credit card debt question; lawyer involved now??

So, I decieded about a month ago that I NEED to take care of my credit card debt. So, I did the credit report, got a hold of my credit card co, and told them I needed to work a payment plan out, but I will pay. I did this in a letter to them...never heard anything back. I honestly just thought it took a long time for them to do paperwork. Well, today a letter came from a lawyer's office stating I'm being sued over that debt. WHAT!!?? I called the lawyer's office and he said that since my debt was forwarded to him there's nothing I can do but see him in court. He sounded pretty mean too. Is there anything I can do?

-I only have 1 credit card.

Will I go to jail if I can't pay it all in one lump sum?

First off...I don't think you were sued. You are sued when you receive a summons and complaint from the county where you live. This will normally be a form signed by someone at the courthouse and must be SERVED to you either physically (typically by the sheriff's office or local police or some other person authorized to do so) or via certified mail. But you must have this summons from the court, otherwise it's really just junk mail.

Did you receive a legal complaint along with the summons?

Is there a case and file number listed CLEARLY and OBVIOUSLY by the court?

Second, I would call the county courthouse where you live and ask if there is a case pending against you. I would bet that there is no pending lawsuit. If that is the case, I would write a sternly worded letter to this 'lawyer' telling them that they have violated the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act). If there is no case pending, I would suggest that you copy this letter that you received and send a copy to the attorney general's office in the state where you live. If an attorney did send this to you, they are making some pretty serious errors!

A lawyer who sends you a letter saying he has sued you is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. This is tantamount to forging court documents in order to fool you into paying, and this is ILLEGAL. They can't say that they will sue you unless they plan to do, and they can't send you documents which look or resemble court documents or give the impression that they are so.

$600 is such a small amount of money in the grand scheme! It will cost than more to file a case in court and attorney's fees. Most attorney's on average about $185/hr (depending on their rates), and I find it doubtful that they would waste their money like that on $600.

You didn't say, but has your debt been sold to a collection agency? I can't see a bank suing for $600 unless you did something fraudulent like money laundering or lie to get your credit card.

You won't go to jail, either.

EDIT:
This is section 807 of the FDCPA, (9):
(9) The use or distribution of any written communication
which simulates or is falsely represented to be a document
authorized, issued, or approved by any court,
official, or agency of the United States or any State, or
which creates a false impression as to its source, authorization, or approval.

You can do now two things one is to hire a lawyer for yourself and move to the court or you can contact with some debt consolidation agency who deals with the credit card companies. They will settle with the card company about the problem.
http://www.debtmanagementguru.blogspot.c...

First of all he can't have you sent to jail for owing money. If you were in jail I wonder how he thinks you could even work on getting the money to pay the bill. But you cannot be took to jail for owing money. You can be sued and your wages garnished and stuff you own repo'd. Also you have other options that going to court. He can offer you a settlement, or repo your stuff, especially if you already agree to pay the debt what use would it be to take you to court anyway. All debt collectors and lawyers working for debt collectors are mean. How long has it been since he contacted you and told you that you had to goto court, because I think he is just bluffing. Even if you get served with papers you should be able to settle out of court. You should have CALLED the credit company, instead of mailing them, they can avoid letters but they can't avoid phone calls as well. Also they are a thing called lawyer collection agencies, that's where your account goes if a regular debt collector cannot collect on the account, the lawyer has the power to take you to court. I don't understand though why your credit company would send your account to a lawyer first anyway. Usually having a lawyer try to collect on the account is like the last thing they do after the account has been in collection agencies. They will usually send accounts to another collection agency also if the first one couldn't collect. I'd just tell that lawyer to go jump in a pond. He's as full of it as a Christmas turkey. He's just bluffing you more than likely.

Another thing is hiring a lawyer will only cost you more money. However if you can afford to do it, go for it, it MIGHT help you, The lawyer is most likely to get the lawyer in trouble, however I believe it is legal for them to send the account to a lawyer first, but thats not a typical thing they do, and taking you to court is not the first thing the lawyer does usually, they try to work out a settlement with you.

We don't have debtor's prison in the US. He's only trying to scare you.

How old is this debt? Your credit card company obviously sold the debt to a collection agency. Did you actually receive a summons?

In the meantime, send a letter (don't call or fax) to the lawyer offering to work out a settlement. If the debt is more than 4 years old, offer half. They would be more likely to accept if you offer a lump sum. Any payment arrangement would have to be short term -- less than 6 months. Get them to sign off on any settlement agreement and don't give them access to your bank account.

If you do end up in court, the worse they can do is garnish a max of 25% of your wages.

don't worry last i heard there is no debtor's prison in the us depends on how much the credit card debt is for i is trying to worry you for nothing what is the saying you can't draw blood from a turnip you can get a most likely there will do this in small claims court and you can ask the judge for a payment plan like the big hot shot lawyer could do see they work off a % for every person they can strong hold and scare if he refuses your money all he wants is to get more money once he is in court if you not working have can do nothing mite try to garinsh your wages

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