Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia

Re: How do I stop a levy writ

The first and quickest way is to file a petition in bankruptcy with immediate notice to the court and the debt collectors. You may not like that approach, however, and there are other ways.

Generally speaking, when people talk about "forms" in a civil procedure context, the relevant forms are meant as examples of things you have to write yourself, not "fill-in-the-blank" forms. Some clerk's offices do have fill-in forms for certain routine procedures, but you can't rely on that. That said, what you need to file is a "motion to quash the writ" and/or "motion to quash the garnishment".

Generally, a garnishment is a specific kind of levy (also called an attachment) that is executed pursuant to a "writ of execution" or "writ of fieri facias" (also called "fi.fa.", pronounced "fie-fay"). So, if you are successful in having the writ quashed, the garnishment should go away. Now, then, you've got to have good legal reasons for asking the court to quash the writ. It's not a rubber stamp kind of thing, and there could be an assessment of attorney's fees against you if the other side successfully argues that your writ was "frivolous".

A good legal reason could be, for example, that the underlying judgment was void for lack of jurisdiction. If you didn't get service of process, and the other side didn't try to serve you in the proper way, then the court didn't have jurisdiction over you that could support a judgment. You may also want to file a motion to vacate the judgment. If you win on that, you'll be entitled to have a trial that you missed before. Again, good legal reasons are required.

You might want to take a look at the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which could give you a cause of action against the debt collector, if there is one in your case, for any money taken from you as a result of collection activities.

One word of advice about the FDCPA: you know how those things they send you in the mail always say you've got thirty days in which to demand verification of the debt? Well, do it! If you don't deny the claim in writing and demand verification in writing within thirty days of the first notice you get from the debt collector, you lose a bunch of rights.