Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Ohio

In Ohio, before a creditor can garnish a person's wages, the creditor must first obtain a judgment against that person in a court of law. The only way to do that is to file a lawsuit against that person. Naturally, you cannot sue someone in secret. Due Process (guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution) requires that you be given notice of the lawsuit and a chance to be heard in opposition to it.

The way that the Civil Rules accomplish this Due Process requirement to put you on notice of the lawsuit is by requiring the Plaintiff (in this case the bank) to follow Civil Rule 4. Civil Rule 4 covers service of process which is the process of getting you a copy of the Complaint they filed with the court in order to put you on notice of your duty to defend yourself against the suit.

Normally, the lawsuit is filed, and then the Court will send a copy of the lawsuit out to the address that the Plaintiff has specified for you in the complaint be certified mail. If the certified mail is not successful, then the Court will send the Complaint out by regular mail. If that does not come back marked "return to sender" or "no such address" etc., then the Court will usually consider that good service of process.

What you need to do is to go the the court that issued the decision against you and pull the case file and see where they sent the complaint. If they sent the complaint to the wrong address, then you can make a special appearance in the case to contest jurisdiction, arguing that you were never properly served so the court has no power over you and that the garnishment must be set aside and the money returned to you.

If the complaint was sent to the correct address but there is some good reason that you did not respond to it (perhaps you were in the hospital or serving in the military out of the country at the time) then you can make a motion pursuant to Civil Rule 60(b) to set aside the judgment and to allow you to file an Answer and contest the case on the merits. In a 60(b) motion though you must have an affidavit along with exhibits that will show the court that you have a meritorious claim (in this case, you would want to attach your receipts showing that you paid for the truck in full).