legal advice about garnishment >.>

[wintersquall]

hay BG -

i've got some collector shoving court papers up my arse saying he's going to garnish my wages starting in 10 days. the thing is... no one's filed a suit against me in court >.>

they LOOK like official court documents, but there's no court seal, no dates mentioned, and no case numbers. they also say on the papers that their office is trying to collect a detb and will use all information obtained to do so blahblah.

the letters are from an attorney named Richard Seierstad, he's a real attorney as far as i can tell... but even in Minesota (which has very lax garnishment laws), doesn't he have at least have to file... like, something?

i don't know... i've failed to pay debts before, but not in a long time and i've never gotten anything like this from a collection agency.

are they bluffing, or i am in serious trouble here? halp BG!

oh, and before anyone asks - no, i can't just pay the amount of debt they're talking about - it's from a horrible car accident i was in without medical insurance. to top it all off, i'm moving this weekend, and EVERY cent i have is tied up in that.

just curious if anyone has any input/experience with this.

[Shuemue]

You need a proper lawyer.

[Quixon]

My parents owed like 4 Grand to a Credit Card Company from a very long time ago (8 years, maybe more?). They ignored the bill like assholes and eventually even the collection calls stopped.

Well my dad just deposited a metric ton of money from a Settlement he received. And whoever the Debt Collection company had as an Attorney, had a hold put on the account. He hasn't heard from the company in over 5 years at least, and it was just randomly put on hold. My old man was forced to pay funds owed, as he should have paid them long ago neways lol.

[Day]

Yeah, get a lawyer dude, seriously. My co-worker just went through the same exact thing. You need someone ( a lawyer) to tell them to back the fuck off, and you're going to end up needing a lawyer no matter what probably.

Considered filing for bankruptcy? That's what my co-worker ended up doing.

I'm sure you could research the laws and stuff. I know theres some website my friend was looking at that had a list of things these agencies do a lot that they shouldn't.

[wintersquall]

i'm working on the legal angle, it's minnesota statute 571.92 (i'm smart, but i'm not a lawyer so it's taking time).

thing is, there is no evidence anywhere that they actually have gone to a court of law with this. hence why i think it may be a bluff - the total amount of the hospital debt is 2590 bucks, and they're still saying that i can settle for half. if they've already obtained a judgement, why would they still be willing to settle?

other questions - although the lawyer in question does have a valid MN license, he hasn't filed anything in civil court since like early '05... nothing more recent that i can find, leading me to believe he's non-practicing and is just letting the people who work for him handle this crap.

i've contacted a free legal aid thing on the internetz, got a response and am going to call them when i get off work, but this whole thing stinks to me... and i'm tempted to tell them to fuck off and bring it to court if they can.

[Tyche]

I'd first contact your DA and make sure everything is official and make sure no laws are being violated. Other than that...

You need a proper lawyer.

For sure

Another option, you can actually...gasp...pick up the phone, and talk to the debt collector. Most people ignore this facet.

the total amount of the hospital debt is 2590 bucks, and they're still saying that i can settle for half. if they've already obtained a judgement, why would they still be willing to settle?

They way debt collectors work is they buy your debt from whomever you owe the debt to for much less than the amount owed. That gives you room to haggle the price. Before I closed on my house, I had my credit ran (never had it ran previously), and a debt for my fiancee's engagement ring came up. What was odd was that I paid it. I was closing that week. The bank in which I paid the ring through was no longer my bank, and after calling them, they told me that it'd be $40/hour and 6/8 weeks to get the records to me. I called the collection agency and just paid the fucking debt (again) for a much much lower price than they were asking for. That was one fucked up situation, but the point being, you can haggle, work out payments, etc and so on.

[wintersquall]

i spoke to them friday actually, that's when she offered to settle it for half.

again i ask, if they've already obtained a garnishment order - why would they bother settling?

smoke and mirrors. collection agencies are the scum of the earth, and if i can ruin their day by not falling for their shit - or even more... i've already talked to the DAs office and they want copies of the papers because they think they sound fishy too... then these assholes are going down.

if these papers have no legal basis (regardless of whether or not the case has merit), then they're impersonating a court of law to obtain funds. bye bye license, hello significant fines.

i just hope and pray i can get hold of a fairly smart attorney who'll consult for free, and fast >.> legalese isn't my particular specialty.

[Tyche]

Let's say you owe me money. Would I rather have you pay me all of it right now, or some of it over the course of the next 3 years? They were probably saying "Hey, were going to garnish wages unless you go ahead and pay the amount in full..." I'm sure they are required to tell you and give you the chance to pay before they garnish wages. You did the right thing by sending the papers to the DA, they should be able to advise you as to what steps you should take.

[jmc]

What does the paper that was presented to you actually say?

Demand a copy of it, because if they truely filed any claim against you in any type of court you have the legal standing to obtain a copy of the paperwork that was filed.

[BIGSTIC]

Back during my financial woes 3 years ago I had a couple companies threaten garnishment. My attorney sent them all a cookie cutter letter and they all shut up and once my divorce was finalized i filed bankruptcy. They just want their money and will say whatever to try to get it. Only place that my attorney said could garnish with no warning was the feds for student loans and taxes.

However, you did mention that it was a hospital debt. Most medical institutions wont send you to collections so long as you pay like $10/month and are never late with a payment. About 2 years ago my wife had to have a medical procedure and at the time she wasn't on insurance. We were pretty broke so we called the doctor. After 9 months of paying $10/month we got our tax return and were able to pay the debt off. Nothing was ever reported to collections and no interest was ever accrued.

[zoobernut]

Back during my financial woes 3 years ago I had a couple companies threaten garnishment. My attorney sent them all a cookie cutter letter and they all shut up and once my divorce was finalized i filed bankruptcy. They just want their money and will say whatever to try to get it. Only place that my attorney said could garnish with no warning was the feds for student loans and taxes.

However, you did mention that it was a hospital debt. Most medical institutions wont send you to collections so long as you pay like $10/month and are never late with a payment. About 2 years ago my wife had to have a medical procedure and at the time she wasn't on insurance. We were pretty broke so we called the doctor. After 9 months of paying $10/month we got our tax return and were able to pay the debt off. Nothing was ever reported to collections and no interest was ever accrued.

This is the truth if it is a medical expense there is no reason it should go to collections and be this big of a deal. My friend had some rather large medical bills he could not afford so he just talked to the doctor and told him he had no money and the doctor told him whatever he could afford was ok. He ended up paying $10 a month or less for a really long time and just carried the debt. They never hassled him.

[Lauzian]

Speaking from recent experience with my mom's case, in MT at least, if a judge doesn't sign/approve the garnishment it is illegal and cannot be upheld. My mom was in a wreck and even though the other driver's insurance took full responsibility, they haven't paid a damn thing on her medical bills which were sent to a collection company. However, the judge said they have to file the collections against the insurance and not my mom. They got 1 of her checks garnished and the judge went fire and brimstone on their ass.

[Dolmen]

First, the vast majority of doctors will work with you, but you have to make sure you're never late/don't pay a payment.

Second, we have a person at work that has a garnishment, and I've had to deal with it on their paychecks. From everything we received, the company seeking a garnishment has to go to court in order to get the garnishment put into place. Then, your employer is sent papers identifying the garnishment, signed by proper court authorities, and the amount of the garnishment. They're not going to just send you the papers and that's it. If they're willing to settle, I'd bet the house that they haven't received garnishment privileges yet. They offer to settle first so that they don't have to pay legal fees and court costs to seek a garnishment.

If your employer has received garnishment papers, then it's legit. If I were you I would call the doctor and work something out. I knew a guy who had his medical insurance deny coverage when he was in a 4-wheeling accident (we're talking really, really bad accident that almost killed him). He went 4 years thinking that everything was taken care of, and then suddenly the doctor came after him. He explained that he didn't have the financial means to pay it off right then and there, so he set up a plan to pay them $50/month with no interest. Whenever you can send more, do it and you'll keep them happy. A lot of times it won't even hit your credit report.

[wintersquall]

unfortunately, it appears my problem is because where i live. in this state, you don't have to file anything with the court (i.e. there's no case number) to prove the garnishment is valid.

the only paperwork they have to file is the very last step, which puts the garnishment active immediately.

i would've made arrangements with the doctor, but i'm like the guy's friend above... the car accident almost killed me (punctured lungs, a host of other broken bones) and i made 7 bucks an hour bartending with no medical insurance at the time. i thought it was taken care of because i had no money.

four years minus one week later, this hits me - at the worst possible time. it looks like i'm just going to have to pay the half settlement they want by maxing both my credit cards ; ; if i fight it and the garnishment goes through, i lose my new apartment which can't happen. i'm still filing their fucked-up paperwork with the DAs office though, and if they mistepped they're going to get gang-raped like we do to nyzul bosses with 2 SAMs...

[Senji]

50% off after 1 phone call doesn't sound too bad, see if you can whack it down more and try to get a payment plan instead of maxing credit cards if you can. Get everything in writing, including paperwork showing debt is resolved.

Practical example:

Winter: "How about $1200, I can pay you $100 a month, send me an invoice every month and I'll payment by the 15th"

Pricks: "Ok"

4 months and 4 $100 payments later, Phone call;

Pricks: "Hey, send us 400 as your next payment and your debt is closed."

[Tyche]

I wouldn't max out 2 30% interest credit cards before calling and pleaing with them to setup a payment plan with a lower interest rate. They are paid to be dicks, but once you show a willingness to pay, they'll usually work with you.

[wintersquall]

yeah, my problem is money right now - with the new apartment, my student loan payment and the bank loan payment (i took out a goddamn bank loan to make the move possible and so i could furnish the new place, if i would've only known 3-4 weeks ago i could've just paid it out of the loan and had no furniture or something) i really don't have much at all left over to live on, it was going to be tight before all this happened.

the half-off is only active if i pay it now, otherwise they want 24 payments of 108 bucks per month, the total amount. hence why i figured i'd put the 1300 on credit cards now rather than end up paying 2600 over the next two years, and hope i come up with a way to get the CCs paid off quickly.

i may call again tomorrow night. hope someone else is there and try to get a better deal, the chick i talked to tonight was both an ass and as dumb as a box of rocks. i probably dated her >.>

[Shuemue]

Make them an offer. Tell them you'll settle for $500. Companies like this will often accept 25% or lower. They're working on debts that are considered worthless really, they'll take whatever they can get. If they agree, get it in writing before paying a penny.

Think about it, they offered 50% as a settlement, and we all know never to take the first offer, right?

[Rocl]

I've been paying off a $5k debt 50 bucks a month or so over the last 5 years... some months I can, some months I can't, they've been cool when I haven't been able to, but lately they've been getting bitchy. I hate it, I feel bad, but this is definitely one of those bills that sucks b/c the person that hit me in the accident nailed my insurance for almost $200k... fucking fraud.

Maybe if you weren't a woman driver none of this would've happened.

[Tyche]

yeah, my problem is money right now - with the new apartment, my student loan payment and the bank loan payment (i took out a goddamn bank loan to make the move possible and so i could furnish the new place, if i would've only known 3-4 weeks ago i could've just paid it out of the loan and had no furniture or something) i really don't have much at all left over to live on, it was going to be tight before all this happened.

the half-off is only active if i pay it now, otherwise they want 24 payments of 108 bucks per month, the total amount. hence why i figured i'd put the 1300 on credit cards now rather than end up paying 2600 over the next two years, and hope i come up with a way to get the CCs paid off quickly.

i may call again tomorrow night. hope someone else is there and try to get a better deal, the chick i talked to tonight was both an ass and as dumb as a box of rocks. i probably dated her >.>

This is where you call the bluff. Tell them "This is what I can do, take it or we'll keep going in circles..." Their attorney's are much more expensive than your $1000 debt.