Sure- bad stuff does happen. However the worst case scenario here isn't the
end of the world. You would really have to mess up to have a civil matter
like this be a serious impediment to your life.
If you like I can tell you how to accomplish that though you might still fail
to ruin your life:
1. Do everything you can to get them to come after you (chance are you'll
still fail, but lets say they do)
2. Refuse to settle (chance are they'll never actually file suit against you
even after you fail to settle)
3. Destroy evidence after you've been notified (this is seen a big no-no)
4. Do everything possible to annoy the judge
After all that you might be looking at a judgment so large you can't easily
recover from it. However there are still lots of people living with huge
default judgments and similar. There are ways to go about coping with such
judgments.
