sandyclaus
Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California
My family member had an unpaid credit card debt for which the creditor (CA) filed and received a judgment against him. He went to his bank to withdraw funds last Friday on payday to pay some bills, and found that the creditor had executed a bank levy and took his entire paycheck and cleaned out his account.
Herein lies his problem. This family member also received a cut in his hours last week. Whereas he was getting an average of 22-25 hours per week, he has now been reduced to 5-10 hours max. He has rent to pay, and pretty much everything in his last paycheck was to go towards his July rent and bills while he waits for his unemployment/underemployment benefits to kick in.
It was suggested to him that he file a Claim of Exemption to try to get the sheriff to release those funds back to him, and he is following the steps outlined on this page to do so: http://www.saclaw.lib.ca.us/pages/claim-exemption-bank-levy.aspx
What is unclear is what code/statute he needs to reference on Question 5 on the EJ-160 Claim of Exemption form. He is a single adult, no children, and is filing the claim of exemption based solely on financial hardship. Without those funds, he won't be able to pay his rent for July. He may be able to borrow them from someone, but they will expect to be paid back - and if they don't come from the levied funds, he isn't sure where to get them. If he cannot get the creditor to accept his hardship exemption, then he faces another potential future bank levy again that he simply cannot afford. The form asks for a code section, so I figure there must be a specific one he can put that fits his financial hardship category.
Don't get me wrong - he knows he screwed up by not taking care of this sooner. He simply is at a point, financially, where this bank levy could not have come at a worse time. In addition, he is scratching his head (as am I) as to why the creditor didn't just do a wage garnishment instead - at least that way, they wouldn't have to keep coming back and filing another Writ of Execution each time they wanted to ding his bank account. They could have gotten 25% of what little money he would earn from work and it wouldn't impact my son quite as deeply as their "take it all, then repeat" approach employed as the bank levy does. Just doesn't make much sense.
So, can anyone help with the right code/statute reference to fill in on the form? Thanks in advance.
My family member had an unpaid credit card debt for which the creditor (CA) filed and received a judgment against him. He went to his bank to withdraw funds last Friday on payday to pay some bills, and found that the creditor had executed a bank levy and took his entire paycheck and cleaned out his account.
Herein lies his problem. This family member also received a cut in his hours last week. Whereas he was getting an average of 22-25 hours per week, he has now been reduced to 5-10 hours max. He has rent to pay, and pretty much everything in his last paycheck was to go towards his July rent and bills while he waits for his unemployment/underemployment benefits to kick in.
It was suggested to him that he file a Claim of Exemption to try to get the sheriff to release those funds back to him, and he is following the steps outlined on this page to do so: http://www.saclaw.lib.ca.us/pages/claim-exemption-bank-levy.aspx
What is unclear is what code/statute he needs to reference on Question 5 on the EJ-160 Claim of Exemption form. He is a single adult, no children, and is filing the claim of exemption based solely on financial hardship. Without those funds, he won't be able to pay his rent for July. He may be able to borrow them from someone, but they will expect to be paid back - and if they don't come from the levied funds, he isn't sure where to get them. If he cannot get the creditor to accept his hardship exemption, then he faces another potential future bank levy again that he simply cannot afford. The form asks for a code section, so I figure there must be a specific one he can put that fits his financial hardship category.
Don't get me wrong - he knows he screwed up by not taking care of this sooner. He simply is at a point, financially, where this bank levy could not have come at a worse time. In addition, he is scratching his head (as am I) as to why the creditor didn't just do a wage garnishment instead - at least that way, they wouldn't have to keep coming back and filing another Writ of Execution each time they wanted to ding his bank account. They could have gotten 25% of what little money he would earn from work and it wouldn't impact my son quite as deeply as their "take it all, then repeat" approach employed as the bank levy does. Just doesn't make much sense.
So, can anyone help with the right code/statute reference to fill in on the form? Thanks in advance.