writ of garnishment

A judgement was entered against me and my husband approx. two years ago. We established payment arrangements and have been making payments as scheduled. During the past six months two payments were not made, however last payment was made on 7/3/00. Yesterday, 7/21/00, a writ of garnishment was processed and funds were seized from our joint bank account. Does the judgement creditor have the right to seize these funds if we have been making payments without notifying us that payments may not have been satisfactory? Do we have any recourse to prohibit these funds from being taken by the creditor? The funds are being held in an acct. at the bank for 20 days pending notice of release of writ. We need to act immediately and hopefully have the funds credited back to our account. Thanks for your reply.

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face=" Arial, Verdana, Helvetica">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Pam:
A judgement was entered against me and my husband approx. two years ago. We established payment arrangements and have been making payments as scheduled. During the past six months two payments were not made, however last payment was made on 7/3/00. Yesterday, 7/21/00, a writ of garnishment was processed and funds were seized from our joint bank account. Does the judgement creditor have the right to seize these funds if we have been making payments without notifying us that payments may not have been satisfactory? Do we have any recourse to prohibit these funds from being taken by the creditor? The funds are being held in an acct. at the bank for 20 days pending notice of release of writ. We need to act immediately and hopefully have the funds credited back to our account. Thanks for your reply.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


My response:

Unfortunately, when a court ordered payment agreement is breached, the creditor can, and will, accellerate the payment of the writ by attaching account funds. The only reason there is a 20 day "hold" is for you to object to the seizure on one of only a few viable grounds, such as the money in the account is Public Assistance money, or Social Security money, etc. Those types of funds, if traceable, are not subject to attachment. If the funds are mere "savings" then you can consider those monies gone.

IAAL


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The last response was right on the money. The only thing you could do now is talk to a lawyer about possibly negotiating with the creditor. Whether it will work to undo things will depend on a lot of factors like how much they got, how much is still owed and whether you may be a candidate for filing bankruptcy. No assurances something can be done though.

You should know that if bankruptcy was an answer, and I do not know if it is, you may be able to get the moneys back that way.

Law on, Kevin

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Kevin O'Keefe
Founder & Fearless Community Leader
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