The best way to answer all your queries is to get a lawyer from a reputable legal recruitment agency and let them handle that for you.

Sorry this seems to be late but I just joined here. When you recieve a summons because of an outstanding debt setting up a program with Credit Canada is a great solution. The creditors do not always notify Credit Canada that their is a summons being issued because we would advice you to file a defence with the defence being you are repaying the debt through a credit counselling program and they would prefer to obtain a garnishment. I have attended many of the sessions at the courts and they accept this defence and will stop any garnishment as long as the payments are being made. I realize you are not working right now but the garnishment is good for several years.

If you contact Credit Canada and ask for Debbie I will investigate for you.

Still not clear. Does this thing have an EMBOSSED red court seal on the upper left hand corner, with a Small Claims Court file number (like SC-11-00XXXX-YY)? IF so, make sure you file a defence promptly at the court house noted. A pretrial mediation meeting is mandatory. Even if that fails and it goes to trial, tell the judge your financial circumstances and ask for easy payment terms with no interest while not in default. Should you get a nasty judge, who imposes harsh terms, you can always file a motion later for $40.00 to get lower payments. Maybe ask for $25 bucks a month.

Yes, it's a statement of claim issued through the small claims court. Sorry, maybe it is not technically a summons. It was delivered by personal service yesterday. The amount being claimed is the $6500.00 I owe Bank Of Montreal Mastercard. I haven't personally made any payments since before last December, when I was making around $300/week when I was working 2 jobs. That ceased once I stopped working as much. My employment has always fluctuated. Yes, the lawyer as well as the law clerk is stated on the legal documents. I talked to the law clerk today already, of which they passed me on to a guy named Bryan who is in charge of my file. I talked to him, and he's agreed to talk to the lawyers once I make a small payment. Are these just idle threats? I have talked to Credit Canada since then as well, and it seemed Credit Canada was more concerned about the interest on the debt then anything else and apparently I can still work with Credit Canada if they accept the proposal. I'm still fairly confused by all this, so any clarity is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I have never heard of anyone receiving a "summons" for an outstanding debt. Now, I have several questions:

1. Is this paper you received a "Statement of Claim" issued through the Small Claims Court?
2. How did you receive it? By personal service or by mail. If you received it by registered mail, who signed for it?
3. What does this "summons" say and what amount is being claimed?
4. What was the last date that you made any payment on this debt to BMO or made any written acknowledgement of the debt and personally signed by you?

5. Does the lawyer's name appear on the "summons" and, if so, in what capacity?

If you can answer these questions, then we can start from there.

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Educating one Consumer at a time

Hi everyone,

So I posted some time ago regarding some questions about a letter I received from a lawyers office pertaining to a outstanding debt, and my only debt, with BMO. I went to my credit counseling agency right away with the letter (credit Canada) to reopen my file since I was unemployed and unable to follow their program the first time around. Though now I have a steady income to help pay back the debt. So I went back, and went over my situation with Credit Canada who have been in contact with BMO since April to get them to accept a new proposal to pay back the debt through Credit Canada. Yesterday I received a summons in the mail dated May 6th, which was almost a week ago. I had a meeting with Credit Canada this past Tuesday in which case they called and talked to BMO on the phone right in front of me to see if they would accept their proposal. In which case BMO gave the credit counselor and myself no information most particularly regarding a summons. At that point they gave no information about a summons, and I received the summons the day after this session. The issue is, I am not currently employed for them to garnish my wages. I am self-employed, and I have no savings, I don't own any property which they can cease and no one including my common law boyfriend is going to give me a loan to pay back the debt. I said the last time I may be able to get a loan from my father in law, but now they want me to deal with the debt independently. The ONLY way I can pay back the debt is through monthly payments through earnings I make on a monthly basis. My questions are, 1. Did Credit Canada screw up some where? Why weren't they advised of the summons? Should I continue to deal with Credit Canada? I phoned them as soon as I got the summons and they said they would look into it, and contact the lawyers office. What ever that means. I feel like I have no choice but to deal with the summons and the lawyers myself, as obviously going to Credit Canada did not help my situation at all and I honestly feel like that was a huge waste of time and may have made the situation worse for having not dealt with the lawyers office myself. 2. I am waiting now for the lawyers office to open to talk to someone right now over the phone, like I said I have no way to pay back the debt and as the old saying goes, you can't get blood out of a stone. Is my only resort going to be bankruptcy? Thanks.