Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Illinois

My bank account just put a hold on my $1,882.05 for any amount that is owed to a debtor of $913.87. I am from IL. This was done on 09/16/13. I just happened to notice my balance was not correct, because nobody informed me of this on or by 9/16, when I was looking at my account on 9/16. I called the bank and was given the information of why they put a hold on it & called the debtor. Today 09/19 I received papers from the collection lawyer & the bank telling me what & why. There was a court date in July of 2012 that I was never served papers for, and a judgment was made against me. They are now moving forward with this, a year later and no one told me anything about it. There will be a hearing on 10/23 to discover assets, but in the mean time they are holding twice what I owe. Again, I stated I was never served papers for the 1st court date. I do not deny I owe the money, as a matter of fact I was making payments that were being automatically withdrawn from my bank account, but for some reason they stopped with me assuming it was paid off.

Also, the money that was in the bank was part of a severance packaged I received from my previous employer when they laid me off. I am currently unemployed.

My question is don�t they have to serve you papers? And what can I do from here?

Thank you


Asked on 9/19/13, 1:54 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Stephen Messutta

You may actually need to go to court and intercede but without seeing the lawsuit it's impossible to say exactly what you may need to do. Having said that the typical thing to do is to go in on a motion to vacate the judgment with supporting affidavits that notwithstanding whatever is in the court file you were never served other than notice of the garnishment from the bank, and to have an order issued to undo the apparent garnishment.

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Answered on 9/20/13, 8:44 am


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