HELP! husband has garnishment judgement against him!?

While visiting my "lovely" in-laws this evening my MIL gave me some mail of my husbands that she had "forgot" about. Amongst it was a court summons from over a year ago in which my hubby was being sued for a credit card balance he had over 5 years ago that had been overlooked. As of last year nothing was on his credit report about this account, and he can't even remember having it, however attatched to the summons was the original paperwork with his info. The Summons was for a court date of August 2005 and had a wrong address. The address listed was a hybrid of three different address one my husband had some years ago, one he had 2 yrs ago and part of his parents. Somehow it made it to his mom's, but she never told us til now. He has been a fulltime student for the past year and a half so I have no idea if his wages are being garnished. What can we do about this? is this fair that they can send the summons to someone other than him and he is responsible for whoever gets it? Help PLEASE

He was not properly "served" with the Summons and unless there is a Judgment issued by the court (a Default Judgment in this case for hubby not appearing at court proceedings he was unaware of) there can be no garnishment of wages. A final Judgment must be issued by the Court in order for wages to be garnished. You need to contact a general litigation lawyer and file a Motion to Quash Service of Summons. However, note that essentially the plaintiff will then obtain the correct address or whereabouts to locate your husband for later proper Service of Process (the Summons) for which he will have to file an Answer, etc.

After a plaintiff files a Complaint, the sheriff or some other duly authorized person must serve the defendant with a Summons to appear in court. As in civil actions generally, the court acquires personal jurisdiction when the defendant submits to the jurisdiction of the court or is served with process in the manner directed by statute. For most states, personal service is acceptable by leaving a copy with the defendant personally. Substitute service is acceptable by leaving a copy at the defendant's usual place of abode with some person of the family or a person residing there, of the age of 13 or xx years or upwards, and informing that person of the contents of the Summons [and in some states requires the officer or other person making service shall also send a copy of the Summons in a sealed envelope with postage fully prepaid, addressed to the defendant at his or her usual place of abode]. If service upon the tenant is impractical under either Personal or Substitute Service, the court may order service to be made in any manner consistent with due process. The court may also order constructive service by posting and mailing of notices, or by publication and mailing of notices. Before using state statutory provisions allowing for Constructive service, the plaintiff or his attorney must file an affidavit stating that the defendant:
* Does not reside in the state, or
* Has left the state, or
* On due inquiry cannot be found, or
* Is concealed within the state so that process cannot be served upon them

In some states, a plaintiff who uses Constructive service may not obtain a money judgment against the defendant unless that defendant has submitted to the courtâ€™s jurisdiction. If defendant is not served in the manner directed by statute and does not submit to the courtâ€™s jurisdiction, any judgment entered against them may be void regardless of whether the defendant had actual knowledge of the proceedings.

As in any civil action, the defendant may contest the court's jurisdiction by filing a Motion to Quash Service by Summons. The defendant does not however, have to file a special and limited appearance along with this motion. The Motion to Quash must be filed together with or before any responsive pleading (other than a motion for an extension of time within which to answer).

You can challeng Personal Service since the Return of Service must state:
* The sex, race and approximate age of the person served
* Where the person was served, and
* The date and time of day the person was served

Did Mother In Law sign some papers to this effect?

If there is a Default Judgment, to attack the underlying default judgment on the grounds that the court never obtained personal jurisdiction over the defendant, evidence must be presented to impeach the Return of Service. An uncorroborated defendant's Affidavit merely stating that he had not been served with Summons is insufficient to overcome the presumption favoring the Affidavit of Service. The Default Judgment will not be set aside unless the Return of Service is impeached by clear and convincing evidence by the court.

Challenging Substitute Service is where The Return of the officer or other authorized person making service of a Summons on a defendant by delivering a copy to another person, that is, by Substituted Service, must show strict compliance with every requirement of state statute authorizing such substituted service, since the same presumption of validity that attaches to a Return reciting personal service does not apply to substituted service.
When the Return of Service is challenged by Affidavit and there are no Counteraffidavits, the Return itself is not even evidence, and absent testimony by the deputy, the Affidavits must be taken as true and the purported Service of Summons quashed (dismissed).

Challenging Constructive Service is where the plaintiff in a forcible action cannot obtain Personal Service on the defendant, and the Return of Service on the Summons states that service cannot be obtained, the plaintiff may file an Affidavit stating that the defendant is not a resident of the State, or has departed from the State, or on due inquiry cannot be found, or is concealed within the State so that process cannot be served upon him or her. After this Affidavit has been filed, the defendant may be served by "posting and mailing" or "publication and mailing" of the notices. If the defendant contests the factual basis for posting or publication and files an Affidavit to that effect, s/he is entitled to an evidentiary hearing upon the factual basis of the plaintiffâ€™s Affidavit.

There should be someone to call about that on the envelope. You can call the court and explain the situation and they can generally tell you a course of action to take. If you beleive that the credit card was fraudulant, then you should call the police.

That's how they win......they find some obscure address he has given..and send it to people....even though they know the person has moved and has a new address on file.
The hard part is proving they willfully sent the notice to an address they knew was bad.
Good luck.

I wouldn't worry about it. If the Sheriff didnt serve him directly, it is very likely that it will get thrown out of court. If we was working they could garnish him by going directly to his hr department. But since he is not working, I wouldnt worry about it. Have his credit pulled to see if an actual judgment has been granted.

Call the court and see if a judgement was ever entered. then go from there

It kind of depends on the country you are in. They all have different laws regarding this thing. In Oz, wages cant be garnished without the payers knowledge. Get in contact with your accountant, they should be able to tell you.

This happened to me and I got totally screwed. Some video store claimed I didn't return a movie (which I did), and they were trying to charge me over $500 for it. I didn't know about it until years later when it showed up, out of the blue, on my credit report.

Here's why it happened: the company was willing to let the charge go, since they couldn't find me to tell me about it (or let me dispute it.) But then, times got tight and they needed the money, so they went through all their old charges and decided to send them all to collections to try and get some money. That's why my credit was great for years and the video store charge showed up all of a sudden.

The collection agency had been trying to call me at my parents' house, where I hadn't lived for years, and left a generic recorded message each time, so my parents had no idea who was calling or for whom.

It took lots of time on the phone with the video store and the collection agency, and we ended up settling for half the debt. This was still a total rip-off, since I had returned the movie on time, but years later, it was the best I could do.

Your husband would have noticed if his wages were garnished, if he ever looked at his check stubs. It would be listed as a deduction, like taxes or social secrity.

I bet the problem lies with the collection agency handling this account. You should contact them and do NOT let them take advantage of you. Collection agencies are unscrupulous and will take advantage of you if you let them.

Contact the company that is suing him. Don't acknowledge the debt though, if you do you may have to pay

Do not worry just forget Please visit a lawyer and take adequate protection. Never ever recieve the summons without the knowledge of ur lawyer.

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