News out of North Texas Tarrant County provides an interesting insight into the avalanche of aggressive actions taken by creditors. In Tarrant County of the 1,200 court cases filed in May, more than 1,000 of those were related to debt collection.

The tragedy is that more than 80 percent of those debt collection lawsuits wound up in favor of the debt collectors simply because the debtor did not try to defend themselves or show up in court.

In fact the amount of consumer debt lawsuits has become such an issue in Tarrant County that some of the cases could be shifted to eight justice of the peace courts to ease the burden on the courts.

Consumers facing a this situation are best advised to go to court and explain their financial situation in court and ask the judge or justice of the peace for a fair and reasonable repayment plan. People can also consider sending a notice, by traceable means, to the debt collector proposing a repayment plan for the debt when they first find out about the debt. If they do this and the debt collector turns them down, they can take the offer and evidence that the debt collector refused it, to court.

Often people will be surprised that the court will grant them the payment plan requested.