Garnishment advice needed!!!

[Anonymous]

Okay so here is the scope! And I really hope someone out there and give me some advice.

Years ago in my way younger years when i was not so smart and very very poor. I wrote a check for gas that bounced. in 1999 a judgement was filed against me. The amount of the check was for 15.56. I honestly had forgotten all about this. I have not been hiding from this horrible collection agency. However I never contacted to resolve as it is no longer on my credit report. So last month I opened a navy fed checking and savings acount. On monday went to use my navy fed debit card and found the account had been frozen . Apparently the law office handling this and professing to be a debt collector got an order of garnishment on my account. There is only 300 in the account and we had not switched over our direct deposits into this account yet.

So I called them and offered a settlement of 600.. the amount they are trying to get me for is over 1300 dollars. They countered me at 1200 and are unwillingly to budge. I advised them I am willing to come up on my offer if they are willing to move on theirs and they refuse to budge.. So here are my issues with this whole process. 

1. I  no longer live in the state where the orginal collection happened and where all the documents have been filed by the creditor. 

2. . In my expericence.. Any time they get an order for garnishment and serve to the bank they withdraw the funds immediately. They have not done this. Why have they not taken the 300 in there, have only put a freeze on it.. 

3. I am not disputing the debt just the way they went about this whole thinkg. I have not been hidning out somewhere. I own a house. Have had personal loans and car loans thru a credit union in wichita that has been on my credit report for years and they never tried to get anything from that bank. So why come after me now 18 years later. AFter 18 years.. why not give me a decent settlement. 

Any advice on how I can get this resolved or what my next step should be?

We Live in arizona which is a community property state. Can they legally come ater a joint account when this debt has nothing to do with my husband. Was incurred longgggggggggggggggggggg before i met him. 

[Anonymous]

I think it might be money well spent to drop $100 on a consult with an attorney. I don't know when the original judgement was decided, but in most cases, a judgement is only enforceable for ten years; with some states having limited allowances for extensions. If they are outside of the statue of limitations, that would be an easy case for you to win; and if they lied or withheld information to get the garnishment through, you can hang them.

[RobertEG]

If the judgment was issued by a court in another state, they normally are requried to first get the judgment "domesticated" in the state in which they seek enforcement.

That means they present the judgment to a court in your state, and request it be made enforceable there.

Additionally, the court in your state would then need to approve a writ ordering garnishment of pay or leving of assets.

There may be a snafu in either proceeding.

However, you state that they have already obtained a writ authorizing garnishment.  Have you seen it?

Yes, I would advise consultation with an attorney and review of the court proceedings required to effect the garnishment.

[BooBee]

Do as other suggest and call that attorney! In 2016 I had an alleged judgment from 2001 from Citibank of which I've NEVER done business with. It very well could have been ID theft  and I never even realized it. Long story short I only knew of it because of a wage garnishment sent to my office and after a call to an attorney & $600 later my attorney had this frivolous lawsuit dismissed/judgment cancelled.  It sucks it cost me $600 but if it was ID theft I'm grateful it only cost me some cash and not a whole lot more.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

... 

1. I  no longer live in the state where the orginal collection happened and where all the documents have been filed by the creditor. 

2. . In my expericence.. Any time they get an order for garnishment and serve to the bank they withdraw the funds immediately. They have not done this. Why have they not taken the 300 in there, have only put a freeze on it.. 

3. I am not disputing the debt just the way they went about this whole thinkg. I have not been hidning out somewhere. I own a house. Have had personal loans and car loans thru a credit union in wichita that has been on my credit report for years and they never tried to get anything from that bank. So why come after me now 18 years later. AFter 18 years.. why not give me a decent settlement. 

Any advice on how I can get this resolved or what my next step should be?

We Live in arizona which is a community property state. Can they legally come ater a joint account when this debt has nothing to do with my husband. Was incurred longgggggggggggggggggggg before i met him. 

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Not sure what State you came from (Kansas), but see my post about what is possible and what is not for Texas. Check the court filing date on the judgement. That is a long time ago indeed. Kansas might have SOL on period-of-enforceability of debt. How do you know that garnishment occurs immediately? I'd be interested in hearing this. Even the I.R.S. will freeze an account, but permit the debtor to reconcile. For non-government creditors, the reason might have to do with exemptions. Certain types of income are exempt in Texas, for example [wages, pensions, etc.;] technically, the creditor cannot take money that came from these exemptions. And the only way to find out where it came from is to see your bank records. But because of privacy laws, the garnisher cannot force the bank to give you access to your account transactions without yet another lawsuit. So if they take money illegally, that could get them into trouble. What they are hoping you will do is freak-out, and give it to them willingly. And if you do that, you give them de facto absolution of the responsibility of determining if the funds are exempt, as you imply that they are not exempt by the act of surrendering. In Kansas, the same principle applies, but instead of not being able to take any wages, the creditor can take up to 25% of your earnings. But since they don't know if those are your earnings, etc....and yes, they can keep taking until they are satisfied.

UPDATE: I just checked the SOL for judgments in Kansas. Apparently there is none. That explains why they have kept this alive since 1999. 

Not sure about the joint account. That will depend on whether Arizona marriage laws provide for mutual assumption of liabilities by spouses.

The others are right. You should get an attorney. S/he should know within 15 minutes. There are sometimes tiny loopholes on being properly served. Unless a constable hand-delivered the suit, you might be able to go this route. Also, the creditor does not know where that money came from. Your lawyer can file a petition claiming exemption, I suspect. The goal is to make the creditor realize that anything other than taking your offer is risky, and a (good) attorney will know best how to do that. Just look up "debt attorney" in Arizona, and pick one that does not sound dumb on the phone.