Vacating a judgment means that the party (plaintiff or defendant) against whom a judgment has been passed can reopen the case with a view to turn the judgment in their favor. A motion to vacate a judgment must be filed within 30 days from the date you received the judgment notice from the court. However, if you did not receive the judgment notice from the court, the court allows you to file the motion within 180 days from the date you realized that a judgment has been passed against you.

For filing the motion to vacate the judgment, you need to fill up the form after paying the prescribed fees with the clerk’s office in the court from where the judgment was passed. Mostly a motion to vacate a judgment is filed in case of default judgment and so you may need to mention the reason for not being present on the day the judgment was passed. Once you file the motion, the court will fix up a formal hearing date, the details of which will be notified to both parties. The judge may ask you the reason for not being present in the court the first time, if it was a default judgment. Now it depends on the court to decide whether your motion will be granted or not. If your motion is granted the judge may take a hearing right there and so you should always be prepared to present your case. If your case is not heard on that date, you will receive a new date, and both the parties will be informed about the new date.

Now, if the judgment is passed in your favor, you will be receiving a document from the court mentioning that your case has been dismissed and you may send a copy of the court document to the credit bureaus and ask them to remove the judgment from your report.

Summon is generally a legal notice which the plaintiff sends when the borrower defaults on his payments and become delinquent. When the creditor sues the debtor and files a case, the defendant receives a summon which informs him the reason of being sued by the creditor. Once the defendant receives the summon, he has only 30 days to respond to it. Now, if the defendant is not able to respond within 30 days, the case goes to default and the defendant has another 15 days grace period within which he may reopen the default and file an answer after paying court fees, but he not allowed filing an answer beyond this 15 day grace period. However, if the last date of filing the answer to the summon falls on a holiday or a week end then the defendant is allowed to file an answer on the next working day.

Once the defendant files a response to the summon, both parties to the case receive a notice from the clerks office informing them of a trial date or a court date. The defendant can bring any witness who has direct knowledge and may help the court to announce judgment in the right direction. Witness to the case (if any) must be present physically and no letters from witnesses are permitted. While filing the case, the plaintiff needs to pay all the court costs, but the defendant needs to reimburse it if the plaintiff wins the case. However, if the defendant does not file a response to the summon, the creditor or the plaintiff can bring a default judgment against the debtor and may either garnish his wage or his bank account to recover the debt.

After both the parties have presented their claims, the judge decides the case and announces judgment either in favor of the plaintiff or the defendant. Both the parties will receive copies of the judgment which will specify the money judgment that is awarded. Now, if the borrower satisfies the judgment amount, the plaintiff should file “satisfaction of judgment” with the court, so that it gets reflected on the debtor’s credit report as “judgment satisfied”. If the plaintiff fails to file “satisfaction of the judgment”, after the debtor pays off the judgment amount, then he may become liable for the damages which the debtor might face due wrong entry in the credit report.

If you are highly immersed in debt and are not able to repay it back, you can go for a debt settlement program which allows you to repay only a portion of your outstanding debt to the creditors. Under debt settlement plans, you can negotiate with your creditors to bring down your debt to 40 to 60% of your outstanding amount and the creditor agrees to forgive you the remaining part of the debt. The most common debt that is generally settled under debt settlement program is the credit card debt. You can also settle auto loans, medical bills and personal loans under the settlement program. However, certain types of loans such as alimony and child support obligations, mortgages, car loans and federal tax debts cannot be settled under debt settlement plans.

It usually takes 2 to 4 years to pay off the debts using the debt settlement program. There are debt settlement companies who negotiate with the creditors or the collection agencies on your behalf and settle the debt for much less that you actually owe. The companies normally charge an upfront fee for their service. Debt settlement has the following benefits:

1. Debt settlement can help you to avoid bankruptcy, because under such program, you not only save money by paying only a small portion of the debt, but also repay it back in monthly installments. So there is a very little chance that you cannot continue making your payments and file bankruptcy.

2. Under debt settlement program you make only a single payment to the debt settlement company for all your debts you would like to settle. The debt settlement company accumulates this money in a trust and after accruing a good amount they negotiate with your creditors and pay them off.

3. Registering for debt settlement program will help you to avoid the unfair collection practices adopted by most creditors and collection agencies. Moreover, the debt settlement company also negotiates on your behalf and helps you to eliminate the late payment fees and other finance charges associated with the debts.

4. You may also avoid judgment which can be brought against you by the creditor or the collection agency in order to recover the debt. This may save you from getting your wage garnished or placing your property on lien.

Most of us face financial crisis at the end of the month from which we cannot recover without the help urgent credit. Payday loans come in handy during these times, because these loans help us to take care of these unexpected expenses till the time we receive our next paycheck. In spite of the fact that these loans have high interest rates, most Americans usually resort to these types of loans because of it easy accessibility. Moreover, people who do not have a credit history or people with a very low credit score can avail these types of loans because the creditors do not pull out the credit report and check the creditworthiness of the borrowers while offering payday loans.

The term for which the payday loans are offered may differ from state to state and may vary form 6 days to 120 days. This means that the loans which are offered for more than 120 days cannot be considered a payday loan. These loans can be obtained even online by providing certain information like your social security number, email id, contact information and your bank account details. They sometimes even take your authorization to debit money from your bank account in case you fail to repay the debt. Some lenders even offer fax less payday day loans which do not require any paperwork to be faxed to the lender, before you can get the loan. The lenders deposit the money in your bank account, whose details you have provided in the loan application form.

Now, the state laws have also fixed the ceiling above which payday loans cannot be offered. While for most states it has been fixed at $350, for the state of Washington it is $700.Moreover, there are certain states like Washington D.C, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and New Jersey, where payday loan are prohibited by law.

Because of the high interest rate and other finance charges, these loans may put borrowers in vicious circle of debts and may push them to debt trap. Now, once the debtors fall in debt trap and default on their payments, the creditors report it to the credit bureaus and the outstanding debt gets reflected in the credit report as delinquent and affects the credit score for seven years. So one should always try and avoid taking such types of loans.

Steps that need to follow in order to avoid payday loans:

1. You should always budget your expenditures and keep a very small portion of every paycheck, say $20, in your saving account with your bank and try to build up a contingency fund of $400 to $500, which you can use while you are in need of urgent cash either at the end of the month or during emergencies.

2. You can ask your employer, friends or any of your family members for money against a written agreement or apply for a small loan from a credit union where you hold an account. You may also think of using your credit cards to take cash advance instead of going for payday loans.

3. Try and get rid of existing payday loans. Instead of taking another payday loan to repay back an existing loan, you can work out a repayment plan with your lender and pay it off in installments.