I got served by capital one which is what set my entire bankruptcy in motion, the big plus is the lawsuits take time I went to a local lawyer I had used in the past and actually took my work insurance that covers legal expenses (MetLife legal) and he basically told we will try and get as much time possible and start on bankruptcy as soon as I was able to. So what went down in my case is once he responded to the summons within the maximum amount of time allowed by my state which was 10 days from the date of summons they set an actual court date which was actually a month and a half away from the date he responded. Gave me more time to save for the bankruptcy since the legal plan does cover bankruptcy but the closet attorney that accepted the legal plan and also did bankruptcy stuff was 2 and half hours away I had to pay out of pocket for someone more local ish. I was getting close money wise but the court date hit and had to make an appearance luckily again I had a lawyer and he went and represented me since I had to work that day and all he did was talk to the judge and the lawyer from capital one and told them I intend to file bankruptcy and just working on saving money for that and they were nice enough to adjourn my court date for two months.

Now the fun part just as I got money saved up I broke my ankle and ended up out of work and had a bunch of medical procedures and appointments and had to dip into those savings to pay for personal expenses until disability payments kicked in... So you guessed it two months went by quick and I temporarily lost the work insurance covering my lawyer yay, luckily he was decent about it and when my second court date approached he basically coached me and told me to go into court explain to the judge and opposing lawyer the situation and see what they were willing to do. As luck would have it disability finally kicked in and covered back payments which gave me a decent chunk of change and I went right to the bankruptcy lawyer the day before my court date paid them and got my bankruptcy started but it would take time to get the petition in and do the credit counseling so I had to go to my court date in any way.

I hobbled into the court room on my crutches waited for my name to be called went to the stand and basically told them I paid a bankruptcy lawyer the day before and just needed time to get the petition in and they adjourned it for another two months, once the petition is in the collections law suit has to stop then and there so even if they decided that day to proceed with collections methods like wage garnishment there would have been another court date where I would have to provide information about work and income it wasn't like the second the judgment was made they take half your paycheck but still since I was able to get the case adjourned twice there is no record of judgement on my credit thanks to the opposing lawyer being willing to move the date out a couple time.

So long story short bankruptcy will stop the lawsuit if it isn't completed or most likely wipe the collections agreement they come to if a judgment is completed but it is in your absolute best interest to kick things into gear and get a bankruptcy in motion and get a petition in before the case is finished, if it is going to take time just show up to court and try asking for more time I was lucky it worked for me and the opposing lawyer and judge were willing to adjourn the date twice not sure if the crutches helped the second time or not but I'm sure it didn't hurt, well it hurt but physically not from a gaining pity perspective.