Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia

Re: Credit

These are two separate questions. When a creditor sues a debtor, they are only asking the court to decide IF the debtor actually owes the money. A "judgement" is simply a decision by the court that, yes, the debtor does in fact owe the money.

There are then separate procedures that can be used for the creditor to collect the money.

So, yes, a creditor can sue you even though you are on social security disability. They can get a court judgment that you owe the money (assuming they can prove it, after you perhaps dispute the debt and force them to prove it).

However, that does NOT mean anything about you paying the debt at that stage (not yet).

Then, the creditor would have to try to collect the money from you. The creditor COULD NOT garnish the SSA payments. The creditor COULD NOT garnish money from your bank account IF you can show that the ONLY money in your bank account is from social security disability. (If you have a joint account with someone else, it might be wise to go set up your own separate account at a different bank, and keep the SSA money separate from any other money. And, the creditor CANNOT take someone else's money to pay your debt. SO if you do not put your own money into a joint account, the creditor cannot take money from that other person's account.)

If you have other assets, however, that are not from the SSA payments, the creditor could try to take those other assets to pay the debt.

Now, this does not mean that the creditor MUST go ahead with a lawsuit. If you can show them that you are on SSA and collection efforts would be futile, you might be able to talk them out of it, and get them to forget the whole thing. So you might want to get documentation together and send copies before they take any action. If they see that it would be a waste of time, they might not pursue the debt.

Of course, any documents you send to them might be used (theoretically) to help them collect on the debt later on. SO look very carefully at what you are giving them. For example, I would suggest you NOT send any information telling them what bank you use. Consider very carefully what you send them. However, it is a trade-off. The potential benefit of persuading them to drop their claim has to be weighed against the risks on the other side. And if you send them documentation only showing that you cannot pay, then it is probably worth the risk.