Question about collections and law suits

[Viper786]

I am asking this question on behalf of 2 family members. In 2004, they applied for joint line of credit for 30k. In 2008, things went south and they were unable to pay for this loan. In 2011, a law agency picked up this debt and is now suing. They already put a hold on the account and took out all the money that was in there (only a few hundred at that time). They also got a court order to open the safety deposit box at the bank to seize property, but the box was empty. They tried to garnish wages but both are unemployed. I believe the statute of limitations is 6 years (in Michigan) so I have a feeling they will keep coming after them for 2 more years.

My question is, they already took out money from the bank account, tried to take contents from a safety deposit box, tried to garnish wages, what else can they do? They are trying to avoid BK if possible. Anyone know what else this law agency may try to do?

EDIT: Oh, and another thing. This account does not show up on either of their credit reports... neither does the collection.

[pizzadude]

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@Viper786 wrote:

I am asking this question on behalf of 2 family members. In 2004, they applied for joint line of credit for 30k. In 2008, things went south and they were unable to pay for this loan. In 2011, a law agency picked up this debt and is now suing. They already put a hold on the account and took out all the money that was in there (only a few hundred at that time). They also got a court order to open the safety deposit box at the bank to seize property, but the box was empty. They tried to garnish wages but both are unemployed. I believe the statute of limitations is 6 years (in Michigan) so I have a feeling they will keep coming after them for 2 more years.

My question is, they already took out money from the bank account, tried to take contents from a safety deposit box, tried to garnish wages, what else can they do? They are trying to avoid BK if possible. Anyone know what else this law agency may try to do?

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If they have seized money out of a bank account then they already have sued and obtained a judgment.    Short of garnishing wages or placing liens on property there really isn't much else that a creditor with a judgement can do.   They might be able to seize income tax refunds, but if they aren't working then that's probably not likely.

One thing you should check is whether judgements can be renewed ~ in some cases the plaintiff can do this, so the judgement never really expires....

[Viper786]

Wouldn't a judgement show up on reports? I was look at at all the paperwork, this was all from late 2011 to early 2012. There is no judgement on the credit reports, no collection on credit reports, all there is is one inquiry from the law agency from january of 2012. I think this may have been a small business line of credit. They had a small business at that time which tanked when the economy did.

[Viper786]

Apparently, statute of limitations for judgements is 10 years in michigan but it's renewable. So in otherwords, until this judgement is fully paid, the law agency will keep hounding them?

[pizzadude]

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@Viper786 wrote:

Wouldn't a judgement show up on reports? I was look at at all the paperwork, this was all from late 2011 to early 2012. There is no judgement on the credit reports, no collection on credit reports, all there is is one inquiry from the law agency from january of 2012. I think this may have been a small business line of credit. They had a small business at that time which tanked when the economy did.

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Yes, typically a judgement would show on their credit reports.....although in some cases it is possible that it might not get reported.     There's no way that anyone could take money out of their bank account without a court order resulting from a judgement.    There should be some record of them being served papers, and notices from the court....did they ever receive anything ?   You can do a search at the courthouse to find the case and judgement.

[pizzadude]

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@Viper786 wrote:

Apparently, statute of limitations for judgements is 10 years in michigan but it's renewable. So in otherwords, until this judgement is fully paid, the law agency will keep hounding them?

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Yes, if the judgement is renewable then it can be collected against until they pay.     If they never were properly served notice of the court proceedings then there might be grounds for overturning the judgement, so have them check their records against what is showing in the court records.....