Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Pennsylvania

civil action - judement

A utility company filed a civil action judement against us for a past due utility bill. We received a letter saying this is not a bill or law suit just notification that it's been recorded at the court house. That was 6/21/07. My husband deposited his check into our personal checking account last night (7/13/07) and today we found out our account has been wiped out by this utility company. We received no notification this was occuring. Our account is now in the negative for the outstanding balance and we found a deputy sherif's card in our door to call him. My husband called but they said they'd call him back, they didn't. Now we have no money, checks outstanding on our account that I assume are now going to bounce. Is this legal for them to do this without any notification of their intent? We knew there was a judgement however we didn't know they could just show up and seize anything they want. We intend to pay this bill however we cannot afford to pay it in a lump sum like they obviously want. What can we do to prevent any further action from them, like sherif sale or something?


Asked on 7/14/07, 2:26 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
John Gibson John W. Gibson, Esquire

Re: civil action - judement

You want to go to the Sheriff's Office immediately and each fill out a claim for any exemptions that you are entitled to. If the utility bill is in one spouse's name alone and the bank account is in both names, you may be able to protect the entire account but if the bill is in both names or if the bill is a municipal lien on the property, then you may only be able to protect a portion of the account.

The utility company cannot garnish wages from your employer but once the paycheck is deposited they can reach it by executing on the bank account.

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Answered on 7/15/07, 1:12 pm


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