facing wage garnishment

hello - long story short - my deceased father took out a bunch of student loans to pay for my school about 10 years ago - he said he was paying out of pocket and then promised he would pay them off. we became estranged and stopped paying. the creditor after the debt was sold to collections contacted me a few years ago and I told them to contact my father. Bad move and I should have been more on top of it. I didn’t much else until I found out about a year ago I was served to an old address, never showed up for court cause I didn’t know it was happening and they got a judgement to garnish my wages.

only reason i found out is because they’re suing me again and my roommate told me a process server came to our apartment.

i owe about 20k and want to make things right but i want to do it the right way. i’m trying to work with an attorney but they’re being incredibly slow and I’m wondering if it makes sense to save the money i would spend on an attorney and reach out directly to the creditor to offer a down payment and get on a payment plan.

problem is they already have the judgement and while i have proof to back up that i wasn’t served i don’t want to get in more trouble. advice? im worried they’re going to be unwilling to work with me because we’ve come this far

location: chicago