Debt Collector Has Filed a Motion for Summary Judgment

Hello. I was served with a Summons from a lawfirm for an old credit card debt about 4 months ago. I did not hire an attorney. Instead, I sent a request back to the lawfirm asking that the debt be validated. They sent me back a "partial" response. In other words, my full request was not answered -- mainly, the initial date of the contract and how* the debt that was owed had been calculated. In the meantime, they sent me a request for interrogatories & production of documents. Since they had not validated the debt, I responded to them and to the court with a letter that I was not answering the interrogatories for this reason. Last week I received a Motion for Summary Judgment from the law firm stating that because I did not answer the interrogatories, they were seeking judgment in the case. Is there something I can file to stop this judgment? I would appreciate any advice you can give me. Thank you.

I presume that your debt does not exceed 100000 pesos, thus the case filed against you is collection of sum of money either under the rules on summary proceedings or the new small claims proceedings..I got this conclusion from the fact that your creditor filed a motion for summary judgement, a motion filed in court by a plaintiff when the defendant failed to file, within 10 days per the rules, an answer/response(in small claims petitions) after recieving the summons. A Motion for summary judgment is a common type of motion under the rules on summary proceeding or small claims proceedings. You should have just filed an answer or response after recieving the summons because this have prompted your creditor in to filing the said motion. In short you were in default.

But don't lose hope as the are remedies in law that you may avail of.Your remedy is to file an opposition to the motion for summary judgment...I advice you to hire the services of a lawyer right away so that you may give him the facts and circumstances of your problem and in turn this lawyer will give you the proper advice and legal course of action to be taken..