Servicemembers may have default judgments taken against them while deployed set aside
Section 201 of Title 50 which is part of the SCRA Servicemembers Civil Relief Act requires that a court set aisde default judgments rendered during or within 60 days of the servicemember’s military service. You still need to show that you had a meritorious defense including statute of limitations and improper service or simply that the debt buyer could not prove they owned the debt and the motion for relief must be filed within 90 days of your return. This mechanism can also be important in the bankruptcy context because it can affect your rights in a bankruptcy for example if a debt is alleged to be incurred by fraud and the state court judgment estanlishes fraud then having it set aside can be critical in order to fight that issue in the bankruptcy court or if you are trying to stay within the Chapter 13 debt limits and need to show that a debt was unliquidated that is the amount owed not estanlished. The SCRA has other benefits as well that you can use to make your bankruptcy go smoother such as a reduction in interest rates.
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Bankruptcy Attorney Alex Wathen serving those who serve our country.
I would like to welcome you to my informational blog about the bankruptcy needs of servicemebers. Before I can start posting information of interest to those who would like to learn more I need to give some more information just to make sure I am in compliance with all laws. Here we go indulge:
This website is an informational blog it is not a solicitation for legal services. In the event that it is erroneously deemed a solicitation I have included a few disclaimers. The people in the pictures on this website, unless specifically otherwise indicated such as my picture right above here, are not attorneys in my firm or clients of my firm as far as I know. I believe former Defense Secretary William Cohen is an attorney and he is not part of my law firm nor is he there to be presented as an attorney. I am not employed by the military, the federal government, state, or local government, I am in private practice serving members of the military and other deserving clients, although I do sometimes travel on government business and handle some cases on behalf of private individuals through government appointments. Any past or present employment mentioned on this site and connections therewith should not be interpreted as a claim of affiliation.
Principal office in Houston, Texas. In person meetings with Alex Wathen for whatever reason personal or otherwise at any office are only available by appointment.
We are a debt relief agency (Congress designated us as such). We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code. In other words I am a bankruptcy attorney even though I am not soliciting clients with this website.
Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense taken by Helene C. Stikkel: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Col. Thomas M. Jordan, U.S. Army, Secretary Cohen at the Pentagon (July 16, 1999).
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