Thread: Exemption hearing in court

I was garnished and filed an exemption request as allowed by my state after a garnishment (can't be filed before seizure, and all property is at risk unless you file it) and had a hearing in Jan that went in my favor because they didn't appear. Then they claimed it hadn't received the paperwork so the ruling was vacated and a new hearing was set in Feb, they appeared by phone and Judge said he would mail out his ruling. Hadn't yet, then today I got a notice in the mail of a 3rd hearing set for next week! I don't know what is going on and have not received any additional notices between the 2nd & 3rd hearings. I can't keep missing work over this and it doesn't make sense to me that there would be yet another hearing about the same thing. I don't have any new paperwork nor did the hearing notice request anything new.

Has anyone been through this before? Ideas on what is going on? Tips? Thanks in advance!

I'm not a lawyer, but it sounds very strange to me as well that a 3rd hearing has already been set. Have you tried calling the Judge's office to see if you can get any additional information about why a ruling was never finalized after the 2nd hearing? What state are you in?

Originally Posted by JoshuaHeckathorn

I'm not a lawyer, but it sounds very strange to me as well that a 3rd hearing has already been set. Have you tried calling the Judge's office to see if you can get any additional information about why a ruling was never finalized after the 2nd hearing? What state are you in?

I did call and the clerk said yes that was strange and he'd never seen it happen before. He suggested I call the judge tomorrow and ask him about it, and gave me his available times.

If you can get the judge on the line, that would obviously be the best scenario. He's probably the only one that can really explain what's going on. Keep us posted!

I wasn't able to reach the judge, so go to court tomorrow morning. Will post update when I have one.

Good luck!

Ugh, no real answer still. He said he was wanting me to turn in additional paperwork, but at the end of the first hearing he specifically said he was going to review the file and mail out his ruling. At the 3rd hearing he said that he didn't have the original paperwork I filed to get the hearing in the first place...and demanded I give him my personal copy. Have a feeling I'm gonna get screwed on this one.

Originally Posted by luckymom

Ugh, no real answer still. He said he was wanting me to turn in additional paperwork, but at the end of the first hearing he specifically said he was going to review the file and mail out his ruling. At the 3rd hearing he said that he didn't have the original paperwork I filed to get the hearing in the first place...and demanded I give him my personal copy. Have a feeling I'm gonna get screwed on this one.

Did AA show up this time? Sounds like this guy is a real winner of a judge...hope you don't get screwed.

Originally Posted by JoshuaHeckathorn

Did AA show up this time? Sounds like this guy is a real winner of a judge...hope you don't get screwed.

Thanks. Still no ruling on this! He is letting AA appear by phone from out of state, which is strange to me because I thought there was a rule that they had to have a local representative to sue.

I'm not sure what the laws are in MT, but it sounds like the judge let them appear by phone before so why not again? So, do you have to go back to court again for this? Did the judge give you any sort of estimate for when you can expect a ruling?