The Summons

The laws of most states prohibit the defining of laws and professional processes by anyone other than a licensed professional in that field.

This 'What to do when you receive a summons'

report is a collaboration of authors who are Real Estate Brokers, Commercial Mortgage Brokers, licensed Residential Mortgage Brokers and excerpts from Illinois Free Legal Service Websites, along with the authors personal experiences. 

You Have Received Your Summons

The filing of the lis pendens by the lender

has triggered several actions;

• You are now officially in the foreclosure process 
• Your situation is a matter of public record. 

Simultaneous with the filing of the foreclosure action

at the court house,

your foreclosure situation

will become a matter of public record.

You will now be bombarded with solicitations from;

all claiming to want to help solve your current situation, evey Tom, Dick and Harry of the world will start to contact you about allowing them to help? you through the foreclosure process.

Remember this...

There are good and ethical people out there,

and there are bad unethical people out there.

Arm yourself with knowledge

to protect yourself from the bad ones.

Be aware of who is helping you when facing a foreclosure,

and be sure to choose the right people who are knowledgeable.

Understand the intentions

of the individual who is trying to help you: 

• the mortgage broker who says 'refinance'.  
• the bankruptcy attorney who says 'File for chapter 7 bankruptcy or File for chapter 13 bankruptcy'. 
• the realtor who begs 'list with me' 
• or the investor who claims 'cash for your home' 

Read Foreclosure Scams

The summons states

that you must answer the summons within a set time frame.

The summons also states that if you do not answer the summons or come to court on the specified day,

YOU WILL BE IN DEFAULT

Default means that you automatically,

by taking no action,

can loose,

at the Judge's discretion.

You Have 3 Choices

1.  Answer the summons and come to court   
2. Don't answer the summons but come to court   
3. Don't answer the summons and don't come to court   

The day you receive the summons

is probably,

if not the worst,

at least one of the worst days of your life.

You are afraid, embarrassed and emotionally upset.

Life is not going well for you right now.

• THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO MAKE UNKNOWLEDGABLE DECISIONS
  
    
• THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO LISTEN TO YOUR FAMILY AND  FRIENDS - unless one of them is an attorney with experience in foreclosure law
  
  
• THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO RUN AND  HIDE - you can't hide from what is going to happen ~ THIS IS YOUR HOME!
  
  
• THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO BE TOO PROUD TO ASK FOR HELP! 

Before we get into any discussion on the 3 choices stated above, let's take the fear out of the summons.

Think of the summons as nothing more than an invitation to come to a meeting, and the place for this meeting will be the court house.

When you get stopped for a driving violation,

and get a ticket,

you are getting a summons or an invitation

to a meeting at the court house.

That may aggravate you,

but it doesn't scare you. 

Don't allow the foreclosure summons to scare you either.

Right now you need your emotions and your mind sharp. 

Should You Answer The Summons?

That is a question we cannot answer for you,

however, it is our opinion,

NOT LEGAL ADVISE,

that everyone would want to preserve all their rights and options, rather than to abandon them by NOT filing the answer.

See answering the summons

If you decide to answer the summons,

you have the right,

in this Country,

to represent yourself.

That is called Pro Se.

We will discuss opinions for the need and value of attorney representation later...

see Pros and Cons of Attorney Representation 

In the process of researching for this website,

we contacted several County Court websites

for information

and forms needed in answering the summons.

To our dismay,

most of the Counties

have little or NO information available,

nor do they have the neccessary forms available.

When we called the County Court Clerks Office's

of multiple Counties,

we were told

'that your attorney will create the answer forms for you and the forms are not available, may I answer any other questions for you?'

The forms we were able to find are listed on the Forms page.

It has been our experience,

in the Counties we work in

(100 miles around the Chicago area),

that the County Court protocol is uniform

among the different County Court Systems.

We have had forms from multiple Counties forwarded to our associates by their clients for comparrison.

Therefore, once you have the answer form format,

you should be able to adapt it to any County Court system.

The difference is the County Court Header at the top of the page.

You already have that information from the header of the summons you received.

We found the Cook County Court website

to be the most user friendly,

containing the most information,

and the forms for answering the summons.

Further, the Cook County Court website

even has example forms filled out

so that you can see how to fill out the forms.

Because the Cook County Court forms are publically accessable, we have made them available on this website,

along with the example forms.

We will update the forms page

as more forms become publically available.

IDEA: One homeowner told me that

they filled out the Cook County forms online s

o they were typed,

printed the completed forms,

then made a copy of the summons they had received,

cut off the top header of the copy of the summons,

taped it over the Cook County header

and then made copies of that form and filed them.

Again, we cannot state that this is proper,

if you have questions,

ask an attorney.

I can only state that the above solution worked fine for that homeowner.

There is a filing fee.

Each county has a different fee structure.

We found them to range from $156.00 to $188.00.

If you cannot pay the fee,

most counties allow you to file indigent forms

to have the fee waived.

We found these forms on the Cook County Court website also, so they are also included in our Forms page.

NOTE: During our research of the different counties,

we did find that most Counties have a different format

for the indigent forms,

so you will need to get those forms

from the county that you are in.

They are most likely NOT available on line

and you will need to go to the court house to get them.

We have included the forms

that we found available on the Forms page.

Referenceing the free legal services websites,

and the Cook County Circuit Court website,

answering the summons is a 2 part process.

Think of the appearance form

as your RSVP that you will be at the meeting.

The answer form is your answer to the lenders complaint. 

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