When financial pressure makes it impossible to keep up with credit-card or personal-loan repayments, what often follows — and worries many people most — is receiving a court summons. Many panic and choose to flee the problem, shut themselves away, or simply ignore the hearing. As a lawyer, I can tell you that this is the most serious mistake of all.
What is a court summons — should you be afraid?
Receiving a summons does not mean you are a criminal or will go to jail; this is only a civil procedure in which the financial institution exercises its legal right to claim. If you do not appear, the court treats you as in default and gives a one-sided judgment against you for the full amount plus heavy penalty interest. The consequence is garnishment of your salary or seizure of assets to be sold at public auction.
Going to court is a golden opportunity
On the contrary, going to court is a “golden opportunity” to negotiate a reduction in the interest rate (a haircut) and to arrange instalments you can actually afford. The court and most creditors prefer to negotiate rather than go through enforcement, which is far more troublesome.
Check the limitation period — you may be released from the debt
A key thing a lawyer will check is the limitation period. Credit-card debt has a limitation period of only 2 years from the last date of default. If the bank sues more than 2 years late, the lawyer can file a defence that the claim is time-barred — which can legally release you from that debt entirely. But the court will not raise limitation on its own; only the lawyer can plead it as a defence.
So when you receive a summons, stay composed, gather the slip of your last payment, and bring your documents to a lawyer to find the safest way forward.
