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legal advice?

i am in a bad situation and don't know what my next step is, i am 22 i was 19 when i signed a lease-purchase contract with my parents because they told me to sign it since i was going to be a tenant there with them, living under my parents care. i had no job either. long story short, we moved in july, then a year and 2 months later we were evicted by the court. now the landlord is sueing for 29,000(1 yr of rent we werent living in because contract stated 2 years, and back rent my parents didnt pay). now their is a judgement for 29,000 against all 3 of us. i was not making payments on that house, it was my parents responsibility(even the landlord knew this they were a friend of my parents) but they are coming after me as well. is there any way i can get myself dismissed from this judgement also, there was no certificate of occupancy when they were renting us the house, in new jersey. they didn't rent out the house afterwards, it was sold. it was a lease purchase and 100% of the money paid every month was going towards the purchase price of the house.

Public Comments

1. yes, get yourself a lawyer, you signed because it was forced on you from what you say.
2. I don't think so you were 19 when u singed the contract so that would make you a legal adult.
3. You definitely need to spend the money to talk to an Attorney....you have a problem and you NEED an Attorney.
4. From what little you say here, you may have to pay the landlord because you signed the lease as an adult. You need to speak to a lawyer in your area.
5. File an Oder to Show Cause to vacate the default judgment and put the case back on the calendar. Answer the complaint. Deny that you owe the money, claim that the amount owed is incorrect, claim that they are not entitled to one years rent after you moved out, claim landord failed to mitigate damages, claim fraud in the inducement of signing the lease, claim they breached the contract. Counterclaim for damages against the landlord and attorneys office for violations of the fair debt collection practices act.
6. Tough situation. You can claim you signed the contract under duress and undue influence, since it was your parents who compelled you to sign the lease. However, since you were an adult, and there was no knife to your throat, that would most likely be an unsuccessful defense. The landlord may have a duty to mitigate losses in your jurisdiction. This means that they may be compelled to attempt to rent out the premises for the balance of the lease period, only charging you and your parents for the time the premises were unoccupied, as well as incidental costs such as advertising in the newspaper. You need to investigate whether the landlords had rented your former residence during the period of time your lease continued to run. They cannot recover from both the new tenants and the former tenants for the same time period. However, it appears that it may be too late to assert any defenses, as it appears the case has been litigated and tried, and judgment has already been issued. As a last resort, you may consider bankruptcy. An attorney consultation appears to be in order. Good luck.
7. You have a judgment against you for 29K plus. It will continue to rise with time, and it will NOT go away. Re-opening a judgment if you appeared, answered and defended the action is very difficult, and must be done within a specific period of time that varies from state to state. None of the facts you stated seem to raise issues that would allow you to re-open, assuming there was any procedural ground to do so in the first place. Now if the judgment was entered against you because you defaulted...did not answer the complaint...there is more wiggle room for you to re-open or vacate the judgment. The Court is more inclined to allow you to be heard on the issue. But again, each state has it's own rules and timeframes. If the judgment is more than six months old, it is unlikely that you will win a motion to vacate. Bottom line is you need to get an attorney. If this judgment sits there long enough, you will not be able to get a mortgage, buy a car, sell property if you own it, and it will generally make your life miserable. You may face a garnishment or execution on your bank accounts and other property. Thirty thousand turns into MUCH more than that very quickly. You need to deal with this ASAP. EDIT FOR ASKER'S NEW COMMENTS You are raising issues that SHOULD have been raised at trial. Were you all defaulted for failure to appear? Did you have an attorney? Is there actually a judgment? Is the case still pending? From what you are saying, none of these facts can be particularly helpful after the judgment and after the lapse of some amount of time.