Can a creditor get a court order for a unsecured debt that is past your state statute of limitation. (credit report, income)

[Atlwarrior]

My friend wages are being garnish for a voluntary repossession of a car from 12 years ago. Is that possible? What advice should I give here?

[berdee]

Not much info to go on.

Yes it's possible as long as they won a judgment against your friend. Depending on the state, judgment SOL's can sometimes last for decades. If they had sued your friend years ago they could have just sat on it until they either found out where your friend was working, or, waited until your friend had a garnishable income.

Did they sue your friend years ago or just lately?
Did your friend receive a summons, answered it and showed up in court? Or, received the summons but failed to answer and failed to show up in court?
Did your friend never receive a summons, and, has your friend gone to the county court where the summons was issued to get a copy of the recorded judgment and looked at the service papers to see how they claimed they had served your friend?

[Atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by berdee

Not much info to go on.

Yes it's possible as long as they won a judgment against your friend. Depending on the state, judgment SOL's can sometimes last for decades. If they had sued your friend years ago they could have just sat on it until they either found out where your friend was working, or, waited until your friend had a garnishable income.

Did they sue your friend years ago or just lately?
Did your friend receive a summons, answered it and showed up in court? Or, received the summons but failed to answer and failed to show up in court?
Did your friend never receive a summons, and, has your friend gone to the county court where the summons was issued to get a copy of the recorded judgment and looked at the service papers to see how they claimed they had served your friend?

She just recently received the letter for a local court and the garnishment paper for her employer. She was not aware of any court hearing. They are taking near $800.00 out of her check. The car was voluntarily given back 12 years ago.

[berdee]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

She just recently received the letter for a local court and the garnishment paper for her employer. She was not aware of any court hearing. They are taking near $800.00 out of her check. The car was voluntarily given back 12 years ago.

She was never served, even back about 10-12 years ago?
Had she moved during or since that time, and, if so, did she have her mail forwarded, and, has her credit reports been showing her current/new address since her move?

She needs to go to the court clerk where the judgment was granted and get a copy of the recorded judgment. Then she needs to look to see when the suit was filed (I'm not talking about when the judgment was granted, but rather when the suit was first filed) AND how they claimed they had served her.

If she had never moved, then it sounds like she was sewer served if she'd never received a summons.
If she had moved it's possible that they served her old address IF they were unaware of her new address. If they were aware of her new address but had served her old address instead, that would also be considered sewer service.

If they had sewer served her then she may be able to have the judgment vacated for improper service, which would also stop the garnishment.

[Europeanflava]

No unless your dumb enough to renew it by
talking to same people on phone after certain
period of time or making a payment
past that time for example.