Judgement Proof - when a person has no income or assets to be garnished. Ok, so here is a scenario. Family member is 81 years old. Lives in a assisted nursing home. Only income is from social security and a small monthly pension - this has been the only income source for 16 years. Only money in the bank is a small amount that is all from the social security and pension income. Person has no other assets - no home, no car. Has credit card debts in his name only that the last payment was made 2 1/2 years ago, so they are now placed with several collection agencies. (Other family member was attempting to help pay off the debts, but has been no longer able to do so.) State law says that pensions and social security are protected from garnishment by creditors. As of now, no collection agency has attempted to sue. There is no money to pay these debts. What is the best course of action at this point? So far, asking for validation has been successful. But once every 2 or 3 months, a letter or call comes from a new collection agency.
Oh, and let me add one more thing - we are not at all concerned about the credit report - obviously, at 81 years old, this person will not be applying for any new credit in the rest of his lifetime. So what the agencies report is of no matter.
in my opinion (for whatever it is worth) I would just either ignore the calls or prepare a cease and desist letter stating that you are not the person they are attempting to contact and you are not responsible for his debts. Also state that you have no information that you feel would be of any use to them. Tell them to please cease and desist from calling this number (XXX) yyy-ZZZZ for any reason whatsoever. Send it certified mail, return receipt requested. That should do the trick.
I am his power of attorney, so I don't want to tell them to cease and desist because then they call the assisted living center! One agency in particular keeps calling and offering a settlement, but there is no money to even attempt to pay them anything. What do I do?
That person is just about as judgment proof as it gets. Quite frankly there is nothing they can do to this person as far as I can see. I'd just tell them it isn't your problem.
