About The Handbook

Consumers who have gotten used to financing their debts by drawing on the equity in their homes are now facing an ominous challenge in the wake of the subprime-mortgage collapse. Billions of dollars of consumer credit must now be paid off without drawing on the deep well that home equity offered these homeowners until very recently.

As this financial well dries up, and more and more consumer debt goes unpaid, creditors are going to start collection proceedings against consumer-debtors in ever-increasing numbers.

Some of these consumers-debtors will merely be subjected to collection activities by their creditors, but many will ultimately be dragged into court, perhaps for the first time in their lives.

The dollar amount of the claims against most individual debtors will be relatively small, and because of a lack of either resources or desire, most debtors will not hire an attorney to represent them in court. Without an attorney, the debtor faces a difficult choice either to ignore the legal proceedings, and run the risk of even more serious financial consequences, or to go to court as a self-represented litigant, that is, without an attorney.

The courts where most consumer-credit litigation begins are, unfortunately, ill prepared to handle the coming tsunami of self-represented litigants. While some courts have studied the plight of the self-represented litigant and its impact on the courts themselves, the solutions posed are too little, too late. Things like brochures, one-shot free legal consultations, hotlines, longer court hours, more staff, and free legal forms will be of little avail against the building tidal wave of litigation.

Federal and state legislation offer some protections against predatory collection practices, but nothing can protect the self-represented consumer in court as much as the information in the Debtor’s Litigation Handbook. This basic yet thorough guide cannot replace the services of an experienced attorney, but if you’re going it alone, it’s your best defense.