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Seven Seventeen Ruling Help

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kthomp66

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio

Hello all. I am posting on behalf of my significant other. I also am unsure if this is the correct thread, so I apologize if it isn't.
A little back story. Back in 2015, he took a lien out on his Civic for about $4,000. He lost his job, went into non-payment, had the car repossessed a couple of times, and ended up defaulting on the loan which caused a charge up for 2,560 dollars after payments that had been made, interest, and the sale of the vehicle for $900, of which $340 was applied after fees.
Last year, (Nov. 2016) we moved. He updated his address with the post office, but not with places his mail was addressed to, if that makes sense. The car was sold on 9/10/2016, and we heard nothing after. None of the mail was forwarded from the post office from credit union, which we were unaware of until the lawsuit came in August of this year. He went in to answer the suit within the time frame, and the pretrial date was moved to 1/12/2018. Today, we received mail from the credit union with their original suit, their evidence, and the court's ruling. The final ruling was made on 10/6/2017 in favor of the credit union for $2560. I imagined this would happen because he did go into default. That's fine. I just have a few questions.
1. Why would the court set a new pretrial date, just to skip it and jump to a ruling without trial, mediation, or really any contact other than the lawsuit filing that was mailed?
2. He has no money to pay this back right now. He is planning to file bankruptcy, but again, it comes down to funds that we simply do not have right now. I'm not looking for a lecture here about bad choices and whatnot. I'm wondering what repercussions can come about if he can't pay it back? I read something - on the internet, so of course I have no clue if it's true - about the creditor asking for an "execution," which I understood to be a right to seize assets. His only assets are his car and bank account, which is typically in single to double digits.
He works two part time jobs, $9/hour at one, $11/hour at the other, 15-20 hours a week at each. He pays $500 each month in rent. I also read that there's an allotment they can't take from paychecks if it's set aside for rent, and also money for basic needs. Is any of this true? And if say, for example, his needs are $217/week (a number I pulled from aforementioned site), totaling $868, are they required to leave him with that amount?
I guess the main question here is what is he entitled to pay in garnishment, and what if his hourly wages do not meet that amount?
Thanks in advance.
 


Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
1. Why would the court set a new pretrial date, just to skip it and jump to a ruling without trial, mediation, or really any contact other than the lawsuit filing that was mailed?
We can only speculate on that, and that wouldn’t help you. What your significant other needs to do is get to the courthouse and review the file to see what all was filed in the case. He may have missed a motion that was filed or something else that he needed to respond to.

I'm wondering what repercussions can come about if he can't pay it back?
Once the creditor has a judgment it may proceed to attach any assets or income of the debtor that are not exempt from attachment by federal and state law. Under federal and Ohio law, up to 25% of his wages may be garnished by the judgment debtor. If his earnings are very low it may be that all his earnings would be exempt from garnishment. Under Ohio law, up to $3,775 of the value of a vehicle is exempt from attachment, so unless he has equity in his car greater than that he won’t need to worry about the car getting taken. Also, up to $475 of cash is exempt from levy, too, but any amounts over that in a bank account would be fair game for the creditor. There are also exemptions for a certain amount of household goods, too. Note, too, that retirement accounts, Social Security, federal tax refunds, and certain other government benefits are not subject to attachment for a private judgment.
 

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