Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Pennsylvania

Wait - there is a whole bunch of things here. First, creditors cannot intercept tax refunds in PA for a money judgment unless there is a specific type of creditor - returns are garnished for things like child support, taxes, student loans perhaps and maybe some other kinds of debts. Deficiencies owed on cars is not among them. So if the tax refund was garnished it was not for this kind of debt.

Second, if you had a problem with your vehicle, allowing a repo was NOT the way to solve it. That was ... well ... idiotic. Because when you surrender a car, it is sold, usually at an auto auction, and it does not bring in nearly its value. A deficiency is thus left owing and a creditor or junk debt buyer has 4 years from the date the deficiency is owed to sue you, which obviously was done here if the creditor recovered a money judgment. So now you have done 2 bad things - allowed the car to be repossessed and allowed a judgment to be entered against you without getting any input from an attorney. So it does not matter in what kind of condition you returned the car. A voluntary repo is the same as an involuntary repo. If a deficiency is owed, it is owed.

Now the creditor is going to come after assets and you still have gotten no wiser since you do not know how to protect them.

There is no statute of limitations on a money judgment. Judgments last FOREVER. That said, for enforcement purposes, a money judgment is enforceable against land for a period of 5 years, unless renewed, and enforceable against personal property (bank accounts, household goods and things like that) for a period of 20 years. That is a long long time.

The judgment can stay on your credit report for 7 years from the date of its entry. Just being a judgment from small claims does not trigger this; the small claims judgment must first be transferred and entered upon the docket at the court of common pleas. However, because the judgment is enforceable against personal or real property, the fact that it comes off your credit report after 7 years means virtually nothing. You still cannot own any assets free and clear in solely your own name because they will be at risk.

My advice would be to go and see a lawyer now. As I said, your tax refund was intercepted for something else, not a car judgment. Because you have too much going on, you are going to have to make a copy of the entire court file in the county where the judgment was entered and get copies of documents from the IRS or state that intercepted your refund. Pay the attorney to review your information.

I can review and assist you with your judgment situation, but without knowing more about the tax intercept I am reluctant to take that one on. If interested, you can email me at [email protected] But you are probably better off with local counsel.

Failing that, you may want to look into bankruptcy if you have at least $10,000 in dischargeable debt and can file bankruptcy under chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code.