How do you respond to a lawsuit?

How do you respond to a lawsuit?

I've received a summons to pay but I don't agree to pay it because it follows a fitness subscription bill that I cancelled. How do I defend myself?

B, Geneva

Under the system set out in the Federal Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act (LP), anyone can claim to be another person's creditor and have them served with a summons to pay. This is because it is not the role of the Debt Collection Office to check whether or not a claim is well-founded, and there is no need for the claim to be validated by a judge.

All the creditor has to do is complete a requisition for proceedings, indicating the debtor's identity and address, and a summons to pay will be served on the debtor.

The debtor then has two options: if the debt is recognised, it must be paid within 20 days, failing which the creditor may request that the debt be pursued by way of seizure or bankruptcy; if the claim is disputed, the debtor may lodge an oral objection with the person responsible for delivering the summons to pay or declare it in writing to the debt-collection office within 10 days.

With an opposition, the claim is suspended. To have the stop payment lifted, it is up to the creditor to demonstrate that his or her claims are well-founded.

If these are based on an enforceable court decision, the creditor will be able to have the opposition lifted definitively by means of a rapid procedure for which he or she will still have to apply to a judge.

If the creditor relies on an acknowledgement of debt recorded in a notarial or private deed, he can only obtain a provisional release of the opposition and, depending on the debtor's status, request a provisional seizure or ask the court to make an inventory of his assets. The debtor, for his part, may take legal action to discharge the debt within 20 days of the release of the opposition.

A debtor being sued must therefore pay particular attention to the steps to be taken after notification of a summons to pay in order to obtain, if successful, the suspension or even cancellation of the proceedings against him.