Garnishment Question

[whitingr]

Long story short...I fought and lost against a debt collector.  The received a judgement for $3,020.28 for which after speaking  with their lawyers was able to get it down to $1953.68.  I sent in payments of $950, $500 and $256.84.  There was a final payment of $256.84 which I missed due to medical reasons - my fault and I do understand that. 

With that said the lawyers wasted no time in issuing a garnishment for the remaining amount of $1404.03 after the original payments were credited.  I want to avoid this at all costs if I can, however, I don't have the $1404.03 to settle this.  Thoughts on whether they will still work with me since I have paid $1706.84 already?  According to the court issued garnishment $78 of the remaining is principle and the remaining is just interest.  Keep in mind this was all on a CC with a $1000.00 limit. 

Any thoughts are appreciated on how to proceed?  I have not spoken with the lawyers since the garnishment was issued. 

[RobertEG]

Having a court-ordered garnishment, I dont see an incentive on their part to negotiate an alternate means of payment.

Their hand is now in your pocket.  They no longer have to negotiate to get the $$.

Did you show up in court, and argue the garnishment/amount?  That was the time to make the case.

All I can think of is to call and plead that they negotiate an alternative.  If the amount is excessive, you can always motion the court to modify the terms, but that should have been done at time of the order of garnishment.

[whitingr]

I did not show in court becuase I was unaware that they had filed the garnishment.  I was notified through my employer. 

I will be giving them a call, it certainly can't hurt.  I would hope that they would take the amount already paid into consideration as I will and have paid them, but that assumes they have have any feelings which I know they don't.

[RobertEG]

I would go to the court and review how notice of the court proceeding was served on you.

[lazerz69]

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@RobertEG wrote:

I would go to the court and review how notice of the court proceeding was served on you.

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OP - If you are saying that you were never served with the original summons and complaint you may have the ability to set aside the judgment if it was a default judgment.  You need to speak with an attorney immediately to determine if this is possible.  There are very specific time lines regarding a set-aside.

However, if you are taking about the wage garnishment -

I do not know about your jurisdiction, but in some jurisdictions there is no requirement to serve a notice of wage garnishment on the debtor because it is usually a ministerial matter and there is generally no court proceedings.  The case has already been litigated and a judgment entered.

After judgment is entered the creditor, (the one with the judgment), can use any legal means available to collect on the judgment, including a wage garnishment.

It appears that your employer notified you probably as provided for by law.  You employer may have also provided instructions on how to deal with the garnishment.  There are federal limits on the amounts that can be garnished.  I would suppose that each state has also placed limits on the amount of your check that can be garnished.