1. A person or company sends you a lawyer letter asking you to
pay up or go to court. You ignore the letter and do not attent
court on the day itself.
What will happen?
2. If you lose the civil suit and you do not pay the other party
the money, what happens? The person have to file another civil suit
against you?
3. If you lose the civil suit and say that you got no money to
pay, what happens? Will the court go check your bank account, seize
your furnitures etc to sell it?
(1) Do not ignore the writ of summons issued by the court.
You need to attend the court at the given date and time to say that
you want to defend the charges or admit to be guilty and ask for a
plea. No attendance will mean that you give no respect to court and
the court will view your case unfavourably unless you have a valid
reason not to attend the court. The court could even pass a
judgement against you.
(2) The company will need to apply to the court for an
order to make you pay up for the damages.
(3) With an order from the court, your money in the bank
and any assets and possessions will be frozen or seized by the
court to make payments for the damages. So, you cannot say that you
have no money and don't want to pay up.
The company is not likely to do all these or even file the case
with the court as it is a very costly and time-consuming task. Keep
calm and do not panic.
Before the case is heard in the court, there is now a process of
mediation by the court and you can make use of this process to
settle the case out of court with the company. The company will be
more receptive in the presence of the magistrate or other judicial
officials.