Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Texas

Creditors cannot take any assets without a judgment..and if you are sued, be sure to answer. But your debts are not debts of yur wife, children or anyone but you. Is that clear?

The question is not what they CAN do, it is what they WILL do. For example, the Attorney General's Office brings suits against people who owe school loans, without giving notice to the debtor so that the debtor can show up in court and defend himself/herself - and/or try to work out a mutually agreeable repayment schedule with the creditor - in this case, the Texas Higher Education Board. The AGO will also place a garnishment/levy on a person's bank accounts without the debtor having been given notice of the garnishmenht action. Now, this is not allowed by the rules and, in fact, it is unconstitutional. However, there is this little notion in the law that if you have a legal right you must "use it or lose it." Of course, most people don't know their rights and so lose because they're ignorant of the law. The AGO will even garnish Veterans' Benefit Payments and/or Social Security Income - even though there is a federal law barring this sort of thing. Again, most people don't know about the law, so the AGO gets away with it every day of the year!

Sound scary? It should. You can be robbed and not even know it! Most of the time these sorts of shenannigans are pulled on lower income, less educated people since such nonsense is bound to be gotten away with in such cases. Even if people KNOW the law and their rights, they still need an attorney to fight for them - because just letting the thief know that you know the law and your rights will, along with a dollar, get you a cup of coffee. Why, because another tactic they use is to try to wear you down to the point where you just throw up your hands in disgust and let them get away with their theft. Of course, many people cannot afford an attorney, so that's another dead end. They don't know that there is a law which would give attorney's fees to their lawyer if they are successful in their fight. However, by the same token, most people are not going to go to a law library to research the law to figure things out.

Best advice, get your money out of your bank accounts ASAP and make other arrangements, such as get a good friend to let you use his/her account to deposit your money. Or, open up several different bank accounts with SMALL LOCAL banks. There are a number of strategies you might use. But, first, GET YOUR MONEY out of the bank (especially if its a large, well-known bank, such as Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc.) BEFORE they can "freeze" your accounts.

Hope this helps.