Restrained Bank Accounts- Validation of Debt?

[jemaca77]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

My bank accounts were restrained yesterday. The bank received a restraining notice from an attorney's office that acts as a debt collector. The original debt is from Citi.

Citi has charged the debt off (according to my credit report). I assume this attorney/debt collector purchased the debt from Citi. I never received any documentation from this law firm until just the other day saying a judgement was being issued by the court. I never received a summons to appear or anything.

Can I still ask them to validate the debt? If I do that, will they take the hold off of my accounts until that is resolved?

How do I get the hold off of my accounts? I mean, I have other bills to pay in the meantime. Its pretty dumb that they can do this so that you can in turn go delinquent with other companies as well.

Any advice at this point is appreciated.

[Texas Pooh]

First you need to go to the court and get a complete copy of the files relating to both the lawsuit that was filed against you and the motion to seize your bank account.

Your account has been seized to pay off the judgment that has been entered against you. You are not entitled to notice that the account is being seized before the account is frozen. You are entitled to notice once the account has been frozen; at that time, you have to respond, in court, to the garnishment. The only defense that you have is if the funds in your account are exempt from garnishment. I don't know if that is true in your situation; you'll need to research the exemptions in NY.

In addition, you're going to need to determine if you have grounds to overturn the judgment that was entered against you. The most common grounds are if you didn't get properly served with the original lawsuit; only the file can answer that question. You can't even begin to argue about whether or not the debt is yours, or the amount of the debt, until you get the judgment overturned and the litigation opened up again.

You may be able to get some free or low cost assitance at legal aid, or through a hotline program run by the state bar. Call the courthouse and see if they can give you a referral to legal aid and or a similar program.

If, however, this debt is really yours, take this as a wake up call. Call the attorneys for the creditor and make a payment plan. Otherwise, you are going to continue to experience what you just did - they will find and seize your assets.

[You Are Guilty]

Excellent advice. I'll just add that when you go to the court and retrieve the records, while you'll want to copy everything in there, you are specifically looking for a document titled "affidavit of service". Once you find it, read it and it will tell you how the plaintiff is claiming he gave you notice of the lawsuit. If it's correct, you ought to work on creating a payment plan. If it's wrong, take copies of your file, find the courthouse's Pro Se office and ask the clerk there what forms you need to "vacate a default".