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well crap, i typed a long thing but it didnt post. I dont know if you can go to jail or not. I do know they garnish. they gave garnished his banking account, which now we keep no money in. everything is in his name alone. so i pay cash or we pay the bills from my account. they papers were hand delivered to his mothers house. well one paper, saying please call the sherriffs office or come pick up your papers. never said by a certain date or anything. so the county their in, is like 45 mins from where we live. so no we didnt go the very next day and pick them up, we waited. by the time we got the papers it was after court. WHY DIDNT THEY SEND THIS CERTIFIED MAIL?? I know we owe the debt. I want to pay it and get it off the credit report. i dont want to pay anymore than 3,000.00 because i dont feel we owe anymore than that. can bankruptcy help this matter?? i know that sounds bad but i dont know what else to do. they say it stays for 7 years, well hell its been almost 5. i wish the bank would agree to let us pay them each month like we had planned and do away with the lawyer. I dont know what to do and dont have money for a lawyer, ya know????? we live in alabama, the bank was redstone federal credit union.
Location: 23.7 million to 162 million miles North of Venus
23,938 posts, read 12,753,648 times
Reputation: 10604
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunshine009
I dont know if you can go to jail or not.
Not unless they set up an asset hearing and he fails to show up for that, then the judge may issue an arrest warrant.
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I do know they garnish. they gave garnished his banking account, which now we keep no money in. everything is in his name alone. so i pay cash or we pay the bills from my account.
They can garnish up to 25% of his paycheck. Judgments in Alabama are good for 20 years, so they have plenty of time to file a garnishment writ.
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they papers were hand delivered to his mothers house. well one paper, saying please call the sherriffs office or come pick up your papers. never said by a certain date or anything. so the county their in, is like 45 mins from where we live. so no we didnt go the very next day and pick them up, we waited. by the time we got the papers it was after court. WHY DIDNT THEY SEND THIS CERTIFIED MAIL??
By what you describe it appears that your fiance was improperly served. But, you later state that it's been 5 years since the judgment? And he knew about it 5 years ago? If that's so then it's too late to have it vacated for improper service.
If I'm wrong about the 5 years and the judgment was recent then he may still be able to have it vacated for improper service.
The sheriff was required to locate your fiance and hand deliver the papers, Rule 4.1 (3), not leave a message elsewhere for your fiance telling him to go to the sheriff to pick it up.
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I know we owe the debt. I want to pay it and get it off the credit report. i dont want to pay anymore than 3,000.00 because i dont feel we owe anymore than that. can bankruptcy help this matter?? i know that sounds bad but i dont know what else to do. they say it stays for 7 years, well hell its been almost 5. i wish the bank would agree to let us pay them each month like we had planned and do away with the lawyer. I dont know what to do and dont have money for a lawyer, ya know????? we live in alabama, the bank was redstone federal credit union.
It really isn't enough of a debt to file bankruptcy on. The costs of filing bankruptcy are fairly high where he would basically be paying the same (maybe a little less) and the bankruptcy would stay on his reports for 10 years.
Your fiance would need to deal with whoever it is that got the judgment against him. He really should go to the court clerk and get a copy of the recorded judgment (if it's not recorded then they legally cannot attempt to collect until it is recorded).
He needs to see how much the actual judgment amount is for. How much the judge allowed for costs, fees and how much post judgment interest the judge allowed, which could be up to 12% per year. You would then have to do some number crunching to see if things add up correctly.
He may be able to work a deal with whoever has the judgment but he needs to have everything in writing. If he makes an offer for partial payment as payment in full and they accept it, if he does not have it in writing than he has no agreement that he can hold them to.
He needs to get a copy of the recorded judgment and go from there.
Location: 23.7 million to 162 million miles North of Venus
23,938 posts, read 12,753,648 times
Reputation: 10604
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tightwad
I'm glad that you do agree that there are circumstances that will lead to arrest.
I'm glad that you are glad. I had already mentioned that there are circumstances for that, in fact you had previously quoted my post about it.
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Where did you get your law degree?
When did I ever claim, state, comment, hint, etc., that I was a lawyer in any post in this forum or other forums, on this site or any other site?
Nice way of trying to evade my questions btw.
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I will now not comment on this topic further since I have no desire to harm the OP since they already have a bunch of trouble to deal with as it is.
That's good.
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If you want to disagree with me further take it off the boards to a PM and we can debate to no end.
I have no desire to have an endless yes/no debate about whether someone can be jailed simply because they have a judgment against them, which they cannot for that reason alone. But if you wish to pm me the answers to my questions then feel free to do so.
the court hearing, which we werent there so they did a default and there is a judgement against my fiance.
Is there anything we can do?? We have other bills as well and we are still young. In our early 20s. What are our options?? We're paying on something that is hurting his credit to where we cannot get anything at all. No one will loan him money to pay this off, We have other bills we pay ON TIME EVERY MONTH but still, no one will do this with a judgement on his file. PLEASE HELP
Do you know how many judgements are out there that never, ever get collected?
You are making it too easy for the other side- stop calling them, stop communicating with them. Don't do them any favors.
The worst that could happen is garnishment of wages. But some states you can't do that- check with your own attorney. (or garnishment can't happen in hardship cases)
The next worse things is they put a lien on property. Don't own any- don't worry.
Just know that the judgement will stay 'active' for so many years (in my state it is 7-had a judgement on a contractor and after 7 years it expired and it would have been up to me to refile, spending more money, to keep it active...after checking he still didn't own anything so I let it go and this was a 37k judgement)
Check w/ an attorney (not the other party's) and see about how long judgements are good for.
I wish it would go away. I will call a lawyer next week and see what the time length is. Everyone here tells me to let it go but I cant, I dont want anything bad to happen like garnishment. Thats our only income and we need it.
Location: 23.7 million to 162 million miles North of Venus
23,938 posts, read 12,753,648 times
Reputation: 10604
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunshine009
I wish it would go away. I will call a lawyer next week and see what the time length is.
I've already posted the time length for your state .. "Judgments in Alabama are good for 20 years"
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Everyoneheretellsmetoletitgo but I cant, I dont want anything bad to happen like garnishment. Thats our only income and we need it.
No, everyone is not telling you to let it go.
Has your fiance even picked up a copy of the recorded judgment yet?
OT
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Originally Posted by skaternum
^^^ Wow, that sounds fishy.
Just to avoid confusion .. I believe skaternum directed this comment at a spammers post, that was since removed, and not at the post made by VegasGrace
Once a judgment is entered, rarely will it be vacated or amended. Just accept the fact there's a judgment and deal with the consequences. The judge would not have signed the judgment if he/she didn't believe you were properly served with the papers and given an opportunity to come to court and argue your case.
I don't recommend bankruptcy over a relatively small debt since it will adversely affect everything in your financial life for years to come.
Best advice is to contact the creditor's attorney in writing, offer to pay 60% of the current balance on a certain date each month in a specific dollar amount so the accruing interest won't kill you (ie, $100 on the 20th), both of you get second jobs, and pay on time monthly. Consider it a hard lesson learned.
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