Jail from Small Claims Judgment?

[fa4line]

What is the name of your state? Tennessee

An attorney threatened my wife that she could take a matter to small claims court, receive a judgment and have her arrested if she failed to pay? Is that even possible? Where we lived before I had difficulty collecting on a judgment I won in small claims court.

 

[seniorjudge]

Debtors prisons were outlawed shortly after the end of the American Revolution.

Didn't you read about it?

It was in all the papers....

 

[tranquility]

Send the attorney a letter saying how you don't appreciate the illegal threat to have your wife arrested if she didn't pay a judgment. Tell him if such a threat is repeated, you will report it to the Bar.

He will back off on the threats, but you may still have to go to small claims court.

 

[seniorjudge]

Send the attorney a letter saying how you don't appreciate the illegal threat to have your wife arrested if she didn't pay a judgment. Tell him if such a threat is repeated, you will report it to the Bar.

He will back off on the threats, but you may still have to go to small claims court.

The lawyer has violated the canon of ethics.

Report him.

 

[tranquility]

I agree he was violating ethical rules. I hesitate to report him with one occurance without more as I want an attorney to zealously represent his client. Here, he over-zealously represented the client. However, once the report is made, the attorney has no motivation to deal fairly with the OP. With the straight-forward comment regarding a repetition, any further dealings with the OP will have the OP's power over the attorney in the back of his mind.