I am in NY. There is a judgment against me from Midland Bank and I received an information subpoena today in the mail. They attached my bank account a while ago and now I have to fill this out or I will be arrested? I am a single poor mother of 3 and I am having a hard enough time already. I didn't go to court for the judgment. I ignored it. I know I should have gone but didn't. I am hoping to file BK but can't come up wtih the money right now. I owe a lot of places and am having a hard enough time with life in general. But if I make a payment on a regular basis will this information subpoena still need to be filled out? It says I can either pay them the 80% settlement or if I fail to do that I have to fill it out. The information subpoena was not signed by a court or was it served. It came in regular mail. Will the cops really come to arrest me if I don't fill it out? There are criminals in this city that are worse than me. This debt is from at leat 5 years ago. I'm not sure exactly how long. Any suggestions? I do have a job and don't own anything at all, an old car. No money at all. Living paycheck to paycheck. Thanks.
I'm not a lawyer, but I do know that you need to respond to the information subpoena in some fashion. That doesn't necessarily mean you have to provide them with the information they want. Can you afford to pay the 80% settlement? The judgment has already been entered against you, and if you continue to ignore the issue you could be charged with contempt of court. So, you're in pretty deep already, and I recommend you seek the help of a lawyer to deal with how to respond to the subpoena. If you're worried about money, have you tried looking into the New York Legal Aid Society?
Thanks.. I did some research about it but I am going to check into it more. The subpoena isn't even signed and I do believe it is supposed to be signed by the court clerk although I am not sure if that is true. I can't afford to pay anything but I will pay something if I can't come up with the money for a BK soon. I am hoping to at least meet with a BK attorney by next week. I appreciate your response.
Can someone check this out for me please? Here is something I found and I just wanted to see if this is the case for me. I'm in NY and the thing came by regular mail. It has no signature on it. It is just a form letter it seems with the amount of hte judgment and what date it was entered. Telling me that I have 7 days but yet it has no signature, and no judge's name or identifying mark from the county I am in or from the court in my city. *** At any time before a judgment is satisfied or vacated, the judgment creditor may compel disclosure of all matter relevant to the satisfaction of the judgment, by serving upon any person a subpoena, which shall specify all of the parties to the action, the date of the judgment, the court in which it was entered, the amount of the judgment and the amount then due thereon, and shall Statutee that false swearing or failure to comply with the subpoena is punishable as a contempt of court. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5223. Service of an information subpoena shall be accompanied by a copy and original of written questions and a prepaid, addressed return envelope. Service may be made by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested. Answers shall be made in writing under oath by an officer, director, agent or employee having the information. Answers shall be returned together with the original of the questions within seven days after receipt. Any person served with an information subpoena shall not be entitled to any fee. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5224. A restraining notice may be issued by the clerk of the court or the attorney for the judgment creditor as officer of the court. It may be served upon any persons, except the employer of a judgment debtor where the property sought to be restrained consists of wages or salary due or to become due to the judgment debtor . It shall be served personally in the same manner as a summons or by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested. It shall specify all of the parties to the action, the date that the judgment or order was entered, the court in which it was entered, the amount of the judgment or order and the amount then due thereon, the names of all parties in whose favor and against whom the judgment or order was entered, it shall set forth subdivision (b) and shall Statutee that disobedience is punishable as a contempt of court, and it shall contain an original signature or copy of the original signature of the clerk of the court or attorney which issued it. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5222(a). It sure doesn't contain an original signature so I am wondering if it is not enforceable and just a scare tactic used by Cohen and Slamovitz. Thanks.
I think you need to check with a lawyer on this one. You should really have someone who knows what they're doing look into this. It sounds like it's not a real subpoena, but rather a scare tactic designed to look like a subpoena -- which is a no-no in itself. If you don't have the money for a lawyer, there are low-income referral services in your area that can hook you up with someone who will work cheaply or for free.
A subpoena must be signed by a judge in order to be enforceable in most states so technically speaking it is a scam. But, there is a problem with what I just said because if you fail to answer they can easily go get a judges signature so it would not be advisable to ignore it even so. Ignore it and you will end up with more problems than you want to deal with. There might be a way to get around answering some questions by filing a motion for relief. It all depends on what questions they asked and how they asked them. Some questions might be overly broad, some might be frivolous, some might not lead to discovery of assets, some might be overly burdensome, some might be for purposes of harassment. Examples of commonly asked questions might be among the following What is your name? They already have your name or they would not have sued you in the first place. What is your address? They already have that as well but you might as well answer those questions or the court will conclude that you are simply trying to be uncooperative and rule against you. What is the name of your spouse? Personally I would object to that question if she was not named on the complaint and I did not live in a community property state. If the above two conditions apply then the question would be irrelevant to the discovery of assets. In that case I'd probably object to the question. You will have to answer any employment related questions truthfully. Please provide all bank statements for the last two years (or more) I'd answer that one by saying that I don't keep old bank statements. After all, there is no law that says you have to keep them
Thanks for the replies... I will check into this further as I certainly don't want to get into more of a mess. I really have nothing at all and really how hard is it to find out where a person works if they really want to? Also they can find out if I own a car too which is easy as well. They are really trying to scare me and so far it's working but not as much as it did when I first got that so-called subpoena. I will check with the legal aid people and see if this needs to be responded to. Thanks again. I think I was a member of this site a long time ago, maybe in the year 2000 or so? Is this the same one? I kind of remember being here but not sure. I really got a lot of help from this place. Very useful info for me. I appreciate all of your help. Pam
