Legal Question in Banking Law in Maryland

Re: Joint account garnishment

I am reasonably confident that your bank has no real interest in keeping a $6 account open against your will because it wants to collect penalty fees on the account. It costs money for a bank to administer accounts, and generally speaking, accounts with very small deposits on which there is little activity are "money losers" for the bank.

I suspect that the bank is unable to honor your request to close the account because of the court's garnishment order, which the bank interprets as prohibiting you from withdrawing the final $6 from the account and closing it, without a court order allowing you to do that.

Also, you need to understand what a "garnishment" is. "Garnishment" is when you/your wife's creditor, i.e., the party she owed the money to in the first place, goes to the court and gets an order, served on a third party (in this case, the bank) which happens to have your wife's assets (i.e. the bank account). This allows your wife's creditor to access and be paid those funds by the bank. So, it is not the bank's fault--they are simply (or they are supposed to be) following the court's order of garnishment.

Without being able to review your wife's litigation file, and the order of garnishment, I cannot provide you with any specific advice as to how to resolve this. You would need to retain my services for me to review the file and develop a strategy (see below).

I strongly recommend that you consult with an attorney immediately so that you can explore your legal rights, obligations, and options. If you wish to discuss retaining my services, contact me at:

[email protected]

(973)-605-8995

(*Licensed in New Jersey, Maryland, and Dist. of Columbia)

[Disclaimer: The above comments are not intended as nor should they be relied upon as "legal advice", which can only be obtained by personal consultation with a retained attorney; at which time the specific facts and circumstances of your case can be thoroughly evaluated. This reply is provided for general informational and educational purposes only, and does not create an attorney-client relationship with the responding attorney.]