How could I prevent creditors from going through with a lawsuit?

About a year ago, I was facing some financial hardship and it was getting very hard to make my credit card payments. I enrolled in a program with a bad debt settlement company. Needless to say I recently broke out of the contract with them, after being robbed of for a year. Now two of my creditors are suing me! I enrolled into a much more reputable program, but a few of my accounts are ineligible because of the lawsuits. My next step is to attempt to contact the firms that are now suing me. I was wondering if you could answer a few questions. 1) What are the chances of these firms accepting a payment plan from me and stopping the lawsuits? Or will they want to settle for a lump sum? 2) If I am able to settle with them (come up with the money to that, that is!) what are my chances of settling with them for as low as 25% of what I owe? 3) If I were to be sued, what can happen to me? 4) If I were considering bankruptcy (AS A LAST RESORT!), what all does that entail? How will it affect my credit? For how long? 5) All of this debt is pre-existing to my marriage, the cards are all in my name, if I were to get sued or file bankruptcy, will this involve my husband at all?