My girl friend cannot and will not pay a credit card debt for $7,000 and has recieved a summons from a sheriff to appear in court. If she does not appear a judgement will be against her. Can they attach or take any of her assets or money from bank accounts to pay back the loan?
A judgement would allow them to freeze checking accounts and garnish wages. If she has a house they may place a lien on the property
DO NOT be a no-show in court under any circumstances whatsoever. Not showing up is the worst thing she can possibly do. Even if you are frightened….or you’re sick with a 102 degree fever…or if you reckon that you’d baggy, show up anyway! If you don’t, the other side will get a default judgement and they will get this on THEIR terms. Creditors LOVE when you don’t show up in court. They will tack on all sorts of add-on fees and the amount of the judgment could end up being two or three times the actual amount of the debt. They could freeze her checking account. Even worse…they may be able to garnish wages and if you don’t show up the judge will grant the max. allowable wage garnishment…which can be as high as 25% of her wages.
On the court date: Bring complete documentation of your income and living expenses: Pay stubs and copies of bills. Even if you baggy, you can use this to negotiate much more favorable repayment terms.
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Regarding the advise not more than: no… as long as she shows up in court and tries to negotiate with them they cant garnish her assets or anything.
This is really incorrect. Showing up in court could help you to negotiate a much lower rate of garnishment…but it cannot stop them from getting a garnishment.
if a judgment is issued than the creditor will garnish her wages to pay off the judgment, if they can’t locate her place of employment and she owns any property such as a house they will attach the judgment to that. But usually they will continue to try to locate employment and get the money that way. If she has access to money she try to do a settlement before the court date, if that isn’t a option once she had been issued the judgment she can go to the court house and file a slow pay motion to reduce the amount they can garnish for her pay checks, good luck
no… as long as she shows up in court and tries to negotiate with them they cant garnish her assets or anything…. depending on how ancient the account is i would go to court and say i can only pay $1,000 not a penny more let them say what they want but as long as you continue to show up to court and talk to them they cant do anything but… the judgment which is the outcome of the discussion in court will appear on her court report so possibly she should have started talking to people while it was still in collections
**edit i dont know why im getting hands down… anyone who pays the full amount a collection agency says is an idiot especially if its an ancient debt All those fees they add on for this and that… half the time they dont even know why they are asking for that much money
The creditor will win a default judgment if she no shows. With that judgment they can garnish her wages, attach any bank account with her name on it (even if none of the funds are hers), and lien her property. Judgements are excellent for a long time and can be renewed.
The time to negotiate a settlement was before the court summons.
The above advise is mostly right, just a few clarifications.
Wage Garnishment is not allowed in every state, and then in the states it is allowed in there are guidelines as to how much they can take out per paycheck. The maximum being 25% of the GROSS wages. That is the amount after taxes are taken out, but before any other deductions.
They can attach bank accounts. But again there are some states that have special regulations for joint accounts. If they attach your account they will not say you in advance, and can take up to the judgment amount account at one time.
They can place liens on any property(such as a house or car) that she may own. But, they rarely would go after smaller items.