Judgement question

[nissandave]

What is the name of your state? NC

Hello,

A friend of mine had her husband leave her several years ago and used a credit card as a last resort to live off of. To make a long story short, she fell behind on all her bills and finally got caught up, except for this one credit card. It eventually went into collections, the creditor won a default judgement becuase she did not go to court, and now she has been served with papers to list her exempt personal property in the case to satisfy the judgement.
Her situation is that she is a state employee who gets paid monthly, she has two kids (18+ and 4 to 12 years old), and she only gets paid 10 months out of the year. Due to this, she must accumulate funds in her checking account during the 10 months to carry her over the two months she does not get paid. Currently, she has accumulated 2k to 4k. The questions are:

Is her account in danger of being frozen?
What can she do to prevent this from happening?
Should she advance pay her bills that she will be using this money for in order to prevent the account from being frozen?
If she draws the money out and sock drawers it, is there any danger of it coming back to bite her?

BTW, she does receive child support via direct deposit to this checking account.

 

[Kanman]

Her account is very much in danger of being frozen. The first thing I would tell her to do is to get her money out of the bank asap. There is nothing they can do then and no, it will not come back to bite her. The only way it could come back to bite her is if they can garnish her wages, but I believe NC does not allow general creditors to garnish. If I am correct, then she will be just fine.

You never gave any dates as to the last activity of the debt to determine the statue of limitations and whether it is in or outside of the SOL, this could be her defense it is is past SOL. SOL in NC is 3 years open acct. and written, I believe.

If it is inside the SOL for NC, then she will most likely need to negotiate settlement/payment plans. It sounds like she was properly served and knew about the court case, so you can not claim improper serving.

The only other thing that would get her out of it would be to file chapter 7...offers full protection from any judgments/bank freezing etc, if she owns very few if any assets and does not make to high of an income. NOLO books on determining and filing yourself are great, or find a bankruptcy lawyer.

 

[TigerD]

Is her account in danger of being frozen?

Not frozen -- taken.

What can she do to prevent this from happening?

Pay her debt.

Should she advance pay her bills that she will be using this money for in order to prevent the account from being frozen?

That's just silly. Pay the debt or make arrangement to pay the debt.

If she draws the money out and sock drawers it, is there any danger of it coming back to bite her?

She is being required to list her assets. Money in the sock drawer is an asset. Failure to disclose could result in jail time.

BTW, she does receive child support via direct deposit to this checking account.

Child support is exempt.

KANMAN is a total moran -- ignore his comments, they will only get your friend in trouble. I'll address a few of his many errors:

You never gave any dates as to the last activity of the debt to determine the statue of limitations and whether it is in or outside of the SOL, this could be her defense it is is past SOL. SOL in NC is 3 years open acct. and written, I believe.
SOL is not 3 years for judgments. There is a judgment here KANBOY

Judgments in NC are good for 10 years and I believe can be renewed.

A judgment rendered by the court of North Carolina is enforceable for a period of ten (10) years. (§1-47(a)(1).) A judgment creditor may seek execution against the non-exempt property of the judgment debtor, against his person and for the delivery of the possession of real or personal property. (§1-303.)

 

[Kanman]

And so Debtcollector is saying a judgment can not be overturned? Wow, that is a new one..and rich.

nissandave, you realize that you should never listen to a "Debt Collector", hence the name, for advise. He may be the scumbag that is doing this to you. Do you know any of these people?

You should never actually take anyones advice on a public "free" forum, so do your own investigation and take it all with a grain of salt.

Go talk to a lawyer. Many offer free consultations, so use them. At least you know where you stand.

 

[moburkes]

And so Debtcollector is saying a judgment can not be overturned? Wow, that is a new one..and rich.

nissandave, you realize that you should never listen to a "Debt Collector", hence the name, for advise. He may be the scumbag that is doing this to you. Do you know any of these people?

You should never actually take anyones advice on a public "free" forum, so do your own investigation and take it all with a grain of salt.

Go talk to a lawyer. Many offer free consultations, so use them. At least you know where you stand.

Interesting. I agree, though. OP shouldn't listen to you. Great point!

 

[Kanman]

Interesting. I agree, though. OP shouldn't listen to you. Great point!

Nor YOU... and thanks.

 

[moburkes]

Nor YOU... and thanks.

You're right, I give totally inaccurate legal advice. So inaccurate that Mary and I talk almost daily, but, I haven't been kicked off yet. What a loser.