I was talking to a really good friend last night (telling her that ANYONE could get a SprintPCS phone), and she confided to me that she had a judgement against her from Discover. They actually physically took her to court, and she was found guilty (at fault?)... tho the judge did make Discover remove the returned check fees--my friend didn't have a checking account and when she did pay on her card, she used money orders. The judge also added the atty. fees to my friend's judgement... The poor girl (literally, she's a fellow student who is on gov't assistance w/one child and only works work-study 20 hrs a week) couldn't afford a lawyer to go to court, tried to get Legal Aid and our university's student legal aid to represent her, but they couldn't/wouldn't as they were not versed in consumer law. So, my question is, can they garnish *anything* against her, seeing as she has no real wages (her income is from financial aid and gov't assistance), and is there anything else she can do? Thanks in advance (truly...) Deb @ Mich St
Probably. Have her contact me and I will help her all I can. She will need court certified copies of the judgment, all papers and she will have to send copies of the copies she got from the court, not the originals. Tell her you have found someone on the internet who promises to look at her papers to see if he can offer some suggestions. Tell her it's for free and she is under no obligation whatsoever at any time, now or ever. No, while they may or may not have the ability to garnish, (most likely not) they would not be very likely to do so because there is most likely little or nothing to garnish. Most government type incomes are definitely not touchable by judgment. Tell her that he is not an attorney and that he cannot give her any legal advice at all.
Bill you are a true gentleman... I will hopefully get in touch with her next week and let her know.. Thanks again Deb @ Mich St
OOOOHHHHH! You wound me deeply! I'm only a "true gentleman" you say. Wow! The least you could have done was to say that I am a "true gentleman and a scholar" See how you are???? LOL
I was thinking about adding the scholar part ...... ... but I couldn't remember how to spell it! LOL! This is what happens when its' 70F in Michigan on November 2nd... Deb @ Mich St... waiting to go play in the sunshine...
One lesson I've learned is that when you are instructed to go to court.......GO! I made that mistake. American General took me to court and I didn't show up. I knew I owed the money so I was like, why bother? Plus it was 2 hours away and I was struggling and couldn't afford to take off from work to go. Stupid.....because they won by default. I feel that if I would of showed up to court or at least called them to try and make arrangements, I wouldn't have a satisfied judgment on my Experian report today! Oh well... How much is the judgment for? I am not sure if they can garnish any type of aid. For them to try and garnish, don't they have to take the paperwork down to the Sherrif's or something? I'm not even sure how that works. When American General won the case, they NEVER tried to collect the money. It just sat on my credit report for 2 years. I decided to pay it to try and clean up my credit. I first disputed it (on TU and Experian) and it got deleted from TU. Experian verified it both times. They did update it to satisfied though.
Thanks MP... Discover originally wanted $1900; $1000 actual charges, and $900 in late/overlimit/returned check fees... My friend did go to court; that's how she got the returned check fees and some of the overlimit fees deducted. But the judge added Discover's court fees which brought her total back up to $1900.... I'm going to tell her to stop losing sleep...she was such a wreck. Deb @ Mich St
Dang, I really need to start wearing my glasses when I speed read through these posts. I thought in your original post that you said "by default" meaning she didn't show up. You said "at fault". Cut me some slack, it is Friday......ya know? LOL...
