HELP! Notice of garnishment of wages starting next week.

[Anonymous]

I have not been served with a lawsuit. I just was notified by my payroll department that they received a withholding notice from the circuit court to garnish 25% of my wages.

I found the case with the number I was provided, but there is no information there other than a piece of paper that says it is from another state with my name and an old address that is NOT in that state.

I was not living at the old address anymore when this judgment was awarded, so no one could have served it to me there either. There are two cases against someone with my name from the same plaintiff. The first shows unserved, the second shows awarded after 4 continuances. Does that mean they served someone OTHER than me?

I was told to ask the court for identification of the defendant and they informed me that they had none, and to contact the lawyer, I did, and no one replied. 

What do I do? How do I stop this? I am having a nervous breakdown and no one in payroll is responding because it's Friday night and they didn't send me the email until after hours. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have not been served with a lawsuit. I just was notified by my payroll department that they received a withholding notice from the circuit court to garnish 25% of my wages.

I found the case with the number I was provided, but there is no information there other than a piece of paper that says it is from another state with my name and an old address that is NOT in that state.

I was not living at the old address anymore when this judgment was awarded, so no one could have served it to me there either. There are two cases against someone with my name from the same plaintiff. The first shows unserved, the second shows awarded after 4 continuances. Does that mean they served someone OTHER than me?

I was told to ask the court for identification of the defendant and they informed me that they had none, and to contact the lawyer, I did, and no one replied. 

What do I do? How do I stop this? I am having a nervous breakdown and no one in payroll is responding because it's Friday night and they didn't send me the email until after hours. 

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Sorry that this is happening to you.

I don't know if it would do any good at this point in time, but it sounds as if you need to seek legal advice related to this judgment.  I guess the biggest question whether or not the account that they sought judgment for is one that belonged to you.  If it doesn't then maybe a lawyer can help you straighten this out; if it does belong to you, maybe he/she could give you sound legal advice moving forward. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have not been served with a lawsuit. I just was notified by my payroll department that they received a withholding notice from the circuit court to garnish 25% of my wages.

I found the case with the number I was provided, but there is no information there other than a piece of paper that says it is from another state with my name and an old address that is NOT in that state.

I was not living at the old address anymore when this judgment was awarded, so no one could have served it to me there either. There are two cases against someone with my name from the same plaintiff. The first shows unserved, the second shows awarded after 4 continuances. Does that mean they served someone OTHER than me?

I was told to ask the court for identification of the defendant and they informed me that they had none, and to contact the lawyer, I did, and no one replied. 

What do I do? How do I stop this? I am having a nervous breakdown and no one in payroll is responding because it's Friday night and they didn't send me the email until after hours. 

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Sorry that this is happening to you.

I don't know if it would do any good at this point in time, but it sounds as if you need to seek legal advice related to this judgment.  I guess the biggest question whether or not the account that they sought judgment for is one that belonged to you.  If it doesn't then maybe a lawyer can help you straighten this out; if it does belong to you, maybe he/she could give you sound legal advice moving forward. 

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I did reach out to my lawyer, but she is out of town. That's why I came to the board... to calm my nerves. My job gave me this news after end of day yesterday, so there's nothing I can do right now and I don't think I've ever been this stressed out in my entire life.

I just really can't believe that the burden is on the employee to put a stop to a garnishment when there is absolutely no proof that the debt belongs to that person on the actual judgement. 

Also is it unusual that on the copy of the judgement from VA filed with my local circuit court doesn't say what it is in regards to? Just seems super bizarre to me that 1) the plaintiff's lawyer didn't respond to my request to verify what this was in regards to, and 2) there is 0 information in either the local case or the VA case indicating when the reason to sue happened, and what exactly occurred to prompt it - outside of the fact that there's 0 identifying information regarding the actual defendent until 3 steps later, when it was attached to my address.

[Anonymous]

This happened to me once and it ended up being my debt to the state of California. There was a mistake when my taxes were filed . I just had to deal with it and it was hard! I knew where it was from though because my HR dept. provided that information to me in a letter. I think it's strange that your HR dept. is proceeding without more information. I would imagine they would have checks and balances in place to protect themselves and their employees.

I hope everything turns out well. Keep us posted!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have not been served with a lawsuit. I just was notified by my payroll department that they received a withholding notice from the circuit court to garnish 25% of my wages.

I found the case with the number I was provided, but there is no information there other than a piece of paper that says it is from another state with my name and an old address that is NOT in that state.

I was not living at the old address anymore when this judgment was awarded, so no one could have served it to me there either. There are two cases against someone with my name from the same plaintiff. The first shows unserved, the second shows awarded after 4 continuances. Does that mean they served someone OTHER than me?

I was told to ask the court for identification of the defendant and they informed me that they had none, and to contact the lawyer, I did, and no one replied. 

What do I do? How do I stop this? I am having a nervous breakdown and no one in payroll is responding because it's Friday night and they didn't send me the email until after hours. 

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Is the debt yours?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have not been served with a lawsuit. I just was notified by my payroll department that they received a withholding notice from the circuit court to garnish 25% of my wages.

I found the case with the number I was provided, but there is no information there other than a piece of paper that says it is from another state with my name and an old address that is NOT in that state.

I was not living at the old address anymore when this judgment was awarded, so no one could have served it to me there either. There are two cases against someone with my name from the same plaintiff. The first shows unserved, the second shows awarded after 4 continuances. Does that mean they served someone OTHER than me?

I was told to ask the court for identification of the defendant and they informed me that they had none, and to contact the lawyer, I did, and no one replied. 

What do I do? How do I stop this? I am having a nervous breakdown and no one in payroll is responding because it's Friday night and they didn't send me the email until after hours. 

---

Sorry that this is happening to you.

I don't know if it would do any good at this point in time, but it sounds as if you need to seek legal advice related to this judgment.  I guess the biggest question whether or not the account that they sought judgment for is one that belonged to you.  If it doesn't then maybe a lawyer can help you straighten this out; if it does belong to you, maybe he/she could give you sound legal advice moving forward. 

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I did reach out to my lawyer, but she is out of town. That's why I came to the board... to calm my nerves. My job gave me this news after end of day yesterday, so there's nothing I can do right now and I don't think I've ever been this stressed out in my entire life.

I just really can't believe that the burden is on the employee to put a stop to a garnishment when there is absolutely no proof that the debt belongs to that person on the actual judgement. 

Also is it unusual that on the copy of the judgement from VA filed with my local circuit court doesn't say what it is in regards to? Just seems super bizarre to me that 1) the plaintiff's lawyer didn't respond to my request to verify what this was in regards to, and 2) there is 0 information in either the local case or the VA case indicating when the reason to sue happened, and what exactly occurred to prompt it - outside of the fact that there's 0 identifying information regarding the actual defendent until 3 steps later, when it was attached to my address.

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Since they have made the request to garnish your wages, do you think that they will try to go after you bank accounts next since they have located your current employer?

[RobertEG]

In most cases, a party must file a motion seeking a writ of garnishment with the court, and the court must grant that motion before garnishment can occur.

However, some parties have the legal right to garnish without a separate court order, such as a government agency.

It is imperitive to know the basis upon which the garnishment was approved by the court, and whether or not that process required a separate court date for a hearing/decison on the request. 

The office of the clerk of the court should be able to provide the name of the party awarded the garnishment.

If they could not provide it, I would immediately consult an attorney regarding whether you were provided the proper due process in the court garnishment order.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have not been served with a lawsuit. I just was notified by my payroll department that they received a withholding notice from the circuit court to garnish 25% of my wages.

I found the case with the number I was provided, but there is no information there other than a piece of paper that says it is from another state with my name and an old address that is NOT in that state.

I was not living at the old address anymore when this judgment was awarded, so no one could have served it to me there either. There are two cases against someone with my name from the same plaintiff. The first shows unserved, the second shows awarded after 4 continuances. Does that mean they served someone OTHER than me?

I was told to ask the court for identification of the defendant and they informed me that they had none, and to contact the lawyer, I did, and no one replied. 

What do I do? How do I stop this? I am having a nervous breakdown and no one in payroll is responding because it's Friday night and they didn't send me the email until after hours. 

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Is the debt yours?

[RobertEG]

The key is that your empolyer stated that they have an order from the circuit court.

The court has thus found the garnishment requirments to have been met.

Employers must comply with a court order, and dont have the authority to contest on the merits.

You need review by your attorney as to the accuracy and completeness of the court order.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Is the debt yours?

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I do not recognize the plaintiff and I have never lived in the state of origin of the lawsuit. 

The original casefile has an address listed I have never lived at, but the two following list my former address in CA, and now my current address in MO.

I do not know what it is about, so while it truly doesn't appear to be mine, without further information I can't say for sure. It looks like a person sued another person in small claims court. For what reason, I don't know. I reached out to the plaintiff's lawyer when I found out about the foreign judgement filing asking for further information and any other information about the defendent to verify it is actually me and not someone else and I did not receive a response.

I reached out to my lawyer, but she is currently out of town so I won't hear from her until next week.