<human>: Just got blindsided by a summons, I'm very concerned and I'm not 100% sure how to proceed while still protecting myself.

I got a summons in the mail to go to small claims court next week, *I received the summons with only 10 days notice of the court date*, this is no where near enough time for me to compose myself for this lawsuit, even showing up on the court date they assigned will be a major inconvenience for me as I'm a caregiver for my mother and two weeks ago she took a hard fall and is still completely bedridden after having reconstructive wrist surgery. The court is ~40 mins away with traffic and the appointment is very early in the morning. Things would be different if it was my local court 5 mins down the road.

The summons says it from some medical bill, I honestly have no idea if it's a legitimate bill or not, it definitely could be legitimate, but I have no idea any of the specifics as this debt as this summons is the only correspondence I've gotten from this lawyer. The bill is a little over $1000.

How should I proceed? At the very least I need to push this date back so I can at least get a copy of the debt, but I can't seem to find anything online regarding moving small claims dates for NJ. 

If the debt is valid I am able to make payments, though I would of course prefer to negotiate the amount down. Of course I can call the lawyer directly, but I'd *much prefer* to do everything through written correspondence so I have a paper trail.

My biggest concern here is the time frame, I feel like they're trying to catch me with my pants down and give me no options. The court sent another certified letter that's at the post office, however I won't be able to pick it up until later today, I assume it's just a copy of the one I already have.

Thanks for any help!

Condense the text into a few key points
<bot>: Got summons to go to small claims court with only 10 days notice, on a debt I'm not sure is valid, at the very least need to postpone the court date to figure out what's going on!