Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

Credit Card Debt

I received a call at work from a lawyer representing Chase Bank. He informed me that he had spoken to the corporate offices of the company I work for and that he has a court order to garnish my wages. He said that if I pay $5,000 during the month of October Chase will accept it and conside the matter with me closed. If I don't, then they'll garnish my wages for a total of over $8,000 which includes interest and lawyer fees. What legal recourse do I have? The last payment I made to Chase was in 2004.


Asked on 9/26/07, 9:04 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Robert F. Cohen Law Office of Robert F. Cohen

Re: Credit Card Debt

Check with the court in the county where you have lived and see if there's a lawsuit or judgment against you. If a judgment, then they can enforce the judgment, including a wage attachment. If there's no judgment (and probably no lawsuit), then they have four years from the date of your last payment to file one. You need to do more research.

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Answered on 9/26/07, 9:40 pm
Amy Kleinpeter Clark Kleinpeter Law

Re: Credit Card Debt

There cannot be a garnishment without a judgment. You should have been served with a summons and complaint and had a chance to fight this before a judgment was entered, however sometimes things happen and people do not get served but still get a judgment entered. (Let's pretend these are mistakes...) You can hire an attorney to get this judgment overturned possibly if you were not served.

Ask the attorney to send you a copy of the judgment. Also look at your county court to see if there are any judgments, or get a copy of your credit report.

If there is no judgment, then this collector was lying about the garnishment and that is illegal. You can contact your local consumer attorney and sue the COLLECTOR for damages.

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Answered on 9/27/07, 1:46 am


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