Is it legal for a collection agency to get a writ of garnishment and take funds out of your checking account without notification? I had this done to me this week...I had no idea what was going on....I checked my account balance and I had money in there but the available balance was $0. I couldn't figure out what was going on....and I had checks come through and bounce because of this. Finally a payment showed up marked as "legal order payment". I called the bank to ask what this was and they had no details on it so they referred me to their legal orders dept. and I was told it was a writ of garnishment from a collection agency that I had previous set up payment arrangements with. I have been sending them monthly payments and then all of the sudden they drain my bank account! Luckily, I didn't have that much in there but they did not get all they were after so I am afraid anything I deposit will be taken. I have not called the collection agency yet because I wanted to find out if what they did was legal. If anybody has any advice or information about this I would appreciate your input. Thanks!
In order to get a writ of garnishment, they first had to have won a judgment against you. Were you served? If you know nothing about a judgment, then check with the courthouse to see if they got a default judgment granted against you.
No I was never served. Although I did receive a notice for a certified letter that I have not picked up at the post office yet. Can they serve you via certified mail?
Shelby you are a prime example of why persons should NEVER deal with collection agencies. To find out if you were legally served you will have to research your state laws. There is a possibility that you may get the judgment vacated, but it will more than likely take an attorney and $$$$. More than likely the certified letter was a summons, and if it was conducted according to the laws in your state, the CA got a default judgment against you. When you started paying the CA they got your bank account number off the checks you sent and seized the funds in your bank account. Its a really sh1tty thing to do but it happens every day. The last time I was in court, 4 default judgments were entered that day. From now on you will have to close your bank account. What state are you in? Some else here may have some more specific advice.
I am in WA...I picked up the certified letter...it was just a copy of the writ of garnishment. I was never given a summons to appear in court or anything. Another question I have...I know that if I put any more money in the account they will take it but I have another account at another bank...is there any way they can find out about that one and garnish it too. I have never made any payments out of that account so they don't have any account information.
It's not very likely they could. You need to check your court house records and see if there are any jugments against you.
Re: Re: Writ of garnishment Mr. lbrown, it is extremely likely that they can find out if there are other checking accts in this persons name. There are online P.I. sites that will check for less than $50 and have a list of a persons accts within 10 minutes.
I had a similar thing happen to me about 10 years ago. I owed a tax debt to both the IRS and the state I lived in, I didn't know what to do about it, so I went into denial and didn't do anything. I stopped opening the letters they sent. I gues I thought that if I didn't participate they couldn't do anything to me. They took everything I had in my bank account too. When I learned about it, I went home and opened the letter I'd ignored that said they were going to do it. I happened at a bad time, just after payday, I had no money, rent was due, and my next payday was a long ways away. At the time I thought it was pretty unfair. I didn't understand why the big gad government agency wanted to pick on a little guy like me. After all, the government has billions, why do they need the few thousand I owed them? I asked all the same questions. Can they do that? Do they have a judgment against me? How can they have a judgment if I never got a summons? Well, the truth is I got the summons. My roommate signed for it, and I never opened the envelope. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was bad and I was scared. You would think something like that would be a wake-up call. It wasn't. I learned to be more crafty. The next time I got that letter from the bank, I opened it and got my money out in time. That time the Feds only got a few bucks. It wasn't until a couple of years later that I wised up. When I finally decided to face my problems, I contacted everybody I owed and made arrangements. It wasn't so bad, they were pretty helpful. I tell you this story to let you know that I have walked in your shoes. I have been there. While I don't know you or the exact details of the situation you are in, I do know how it feels and why people get in these situations. Shelby, about a year ago you posted this: I don't know if this is the same creditor or not. If it's not, that means you failed to recieve at least two summons and a writ of garnishment in time to defend yourself. This is a huge problem. Shelby, something needs to change. As I said earlier, I don't know you or the exact details of your situation, so I can't comment on what needs to change. It may be something as basic as reviewing how you get your mail, and why it is that these very important documents are not getting to you in time. If you get your mail at the post office, maybe you need to have it delivered to your home. If your kids pick it up and don't always get it to you in a timely way, maybe that's what needs to change. Or maybe the change that needs to be made is more broad. Maybe what you need to do is review your overall strategy on dealing with this debt. You have been a member of this board for more than two years, how has the things you have learned here been working for you? Previously you have posted that you have had some success with the strategies you have learned here, is your life better today that it was two years ago? Are you moving in the right direction? Selby, I think the basic questions you came here with have been answered, I hope I've encouraged you to ask some larger ones. Of course I can't answer them for you, but I have faith that if you ask, the answers will come. God bless you, I really hope things turn around for you.
Despite all the comments you have received so far almost none of it will help you any. First of all you do need to go to the courthouse and pull copies of all paperwork in the original judgment case. The chances that the judgment is valid is extremely slim. If you would like to send me photocopies of what you get from the courthouse I will gladly go over them and tell you what errors were committed and I will gladly do that for free. No cost, no obligation. I do it all time. There are at least 23 reasons why a judgment might be null and void upon it's face and I've posted them on another thread. Even with those in hand it still quite often takes experience and training to learn to recognize them for what they are and how they have occurred so I just do it for free. You really don't need an attorney to do it for you and most of them won't do it anyway. The basic forms to do it with are sold by nolo.com and many legal supply houses all over the country. Nolo is the only online web site I know of that sells the forms and they give some minimal instructions on how to do it although I find them a bit difficult to follow. I just do them from scratch. It don't cost anything to do it either in terms of court costs because you file as plaintiff on their case numbers so you aren't opening a new case and therefore don't have to pay any filing fees since they already paid the filing fee when they filed motion for summary judgment. You do need to be a bit careful about that garnishment because if the court ordered you to appear for an assets hearing and you didn't go you could have a warrant out for your arrest on contempt charges and if that were to be discovered on a traffic stop or you got caught up in a warrant sweep you would be looking at a bit of time in jail until you put up bond or they hauled you up in front of a judge. I don't know if they allow bond on those charges or not but I suppose they do. You do need to take a more responsible outlook on this and not think you can continue to just ignore it and keep hiding out and closing your bank accounts to keep them from finding any money. You can't just keep running away from this unless you plan on becoming a complete hobo. There is far more to be gained by learning how to fight back and fight back hard than there is by continuing to just ignore it and hope it will go away.
if the court ordered you to appear for an assets hearing and you didn't go you could have a warrant out for your arrest on contempt charges bbauer ================How by default again just like the judgment? The END ************************* LB 59
Well, I can't give you a legal answer on that as you know but it would not be at all surprising to me to find out that they do have the power to issue a warrant on judgments for failure to appear. I've heard tell they do that some places but its very rare. I really don't know why. But putting out a warrant if one fails to show up for an assets hearing or failing or refusing to cooperate at an assets hearing is pretty common. Of course, the "road map" for those things is MSJ, motion for garnishment and then assets hearing. That's the way I understand that it is and warrants are put out after refusal or failure to show up for assets hearings.Not the first two. That's my understanding of it anyway.
I don't know if this is the same creditor or not. If it's not, that means you failed to receive at least two summons and a writ of garnishment in time to defend yourself. This is a huge problem. Shelby, something needs to change. Mycroft ===================== What needs changed is that default judgments need to be outlawed. The END ************************* LB 59
Re: Re: Writ of garnishment My question I guess was what if you failed to show up for this assets hearing for the same reason you never showed up for the judgment court case. IE you never received notice of the hearing either.
I don't know if this is the same creditor or not. If it's not, that means you failed to receive at least two summons and a writ of garnishment in time to defend yourself. This is a huge problem. Shelby, something needs to change. Mycroft ===================== What needs changed is that default judgments need to be outlawed. The END ************************* LB 59
I can well understand your thinking brown but it isn't very practical and if you were a large creditor or lending institution you wouldn't think as you do now. The judgment process has been around since hundreds of years before the Magna Carta in 1215 and although it has changed an awful lot (some of it for the worse and much of it for the better) it still leaves an awful lot to be desired. Be that as it may, without it or something similiar it would be virtually impossible to obtain credit and our economy would still be in the dark ages compared to what it is today. I imagine that the judgment process is one of the most prevalent actions in our legal system today and the courts consider judgment to be a lethal weapon which it would be if it were not for all the errors committed by judges and attorneys alike. Seems to me like its a case of the old saw that claims familiarity breeds contempt. I can well understand your feelings even though I can't agree that judgments ought to be outlawed.
Re: Re: Writ of garnishment I can well understand your feelings even though I can't agree that judgments ought to be outlawed. B B ======================= Bill i didn't say all jugments Reread my quote below it states default judgments _________________________________________________________________ lb59 quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What needs changed is that default judgments need to be outlawed. _________________________________________________________________ The END ************************* LB 59
Re: Re: Writ of garnishment Most judgments are default judgments. The debtor never shows up for court for the simple reason that he has nothing to argue about and isn't likely to get heard even if he does. In one way of feeling about it MSJ is held in courts that might as well be kangaroo courts.
