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.
