I have been making timely and consistent payments on a court judgment for three years. Two months ago I sent in my monthly payment on time and noticed later that it was not cashed. Since it was around the holidays I didn't think much about it. I mailed the next payment on time as well- again it was not cashed. Just days later all my money was sucked out of my checking account!! The CA had garnished my account and shortly thereafter I did receive a notice in the mail- too late as all my money was gone. I called the CA and inquired as to why they would do such a thing to me after I've paid them for three years without fail. The ignorant hick of an office clerk (Tenn.) told me she didn't know "what those things was..." She was referring to my bank generated online payment documents. I had been mailing checks via snail mail and decided to update my account and send them payments using my online bill pay system. This woman, who is obviously stupid- didn't know what they were and declined to cash them. She didn't call me or write to ask me. She just went ahead with legal action!! Do I have any recourse here? And if anyone thinks a garnishment leaves you with some money to live on - think again!!
Were the checks returned to you? Was the total amount withdrawn from your account greater than the two payments sent?
That woman was obviously a dumb b...h. Every payment processing center employee should know by now the difference between a personal check and a bank generated bill payment check. Since they did not cash those checks that money should have been still be in your account. Did they just garnish your account for the amounts of those two checks, or more?
You probably don't have any redress unless you had an Agreement in writing wherein they've agreed to accept payment installments in lieu of executing the order via garnishment (which it isn't here rather, a levy). Even then, you would have a breach claim only and the underlying judgment amount would remain outstanding.
But he did make the payments through his bank's bill payment service - they, the collection agency destroyed the payments because that bimbo didn't know what those were. They - the collection agency - should have contacted him and asked him how come he didn't pay, due date is passed, etc. But just to garnish his account is pure BS.
reply re: garnishment... They sucked out $265 which is all I had in the account at the time...thank god my direct deposit pay check had not hit or they would have gotten a lot more. The $265 was taken off the account balance but they also charged me $117.00 to process the garnishment. (server fees etc.) I can't get a handle on my exact account balance because these bozos come up with a diff. amount each time I ask for it. The interest rate appears to be 8% but who can be sure? They don''t provide any kind of monthly statements. The collection agency is owned by the attorney attorney who got the judgment! He obviously "ambulance-chases" for apartment complexes: he reps for them whenever tenants break their leases and he must be making a killing. A large majority of the tenants who break their leases probably never appear to contest it so he wins by default. I looked him up on the court dockets after the fact and sw that he spends most of his work week representing for apartments and getting judgments against tenants. So classy!! Many are Hispanic and they move away and are likely never properly served - which happened to me. I wasn't there for the original court hearing because I wasn't notified. It seems that in TN they only have to put a notice in the paper!! Totally bogus but my research shows that 99% of the laws protect the landlords. I really wanted to appear and present my case to the judge. The complex had not provided me with a/c for five months and only when I finally started calling and faxing the managment co. in NYC did I get anyone to listen to me. They ended up totally replacing the a/c with a unit that was too big- so then the electricity kept going off. Calls to the office and calls to the Dept. of Housing got me nowhere- the office staff told me to "stop running my hair dryer and the toaster oven at the same time"...I was screaming a t them that I wasn't even at home when the elec. would go off. The Dept. of Housing told me they had 30 days to repsond to all complaints and would not even come out before then... meanwhile I have no electricity!! It was a nightmare and I moved out with two months left on my lease ($510 per month) simply to keep my sanity. They got a judgment for 2600.00! I guess im sol on this one. Yes, she is a dumb a - - in that she didn't recognize a bank generated check nor did she contact me- she just held onto the checks. BEE-OTCH!!
Oh, it's factually BS I agree but, legally speaking it is permissible. Likely a breach claim but, that's a separate matter.
