Once you’ve chosen a debt settlement company or attorney, you have three primary responsibilities. The first is to keep the attorney updated on your contact information. The second is to fund the plan as agreed upon. In other words, you are responsible for coming up with funds to cover roughly 50 cents on every dollar you owe, according to the payment plan and time frame you agreed to, usually 18 to 24 months or less. Your third responsibility is to forward to your debt settlement attorney any debt-related mail that you may receive.