state of PA judgement joint checking account with girlfriend

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 13:40
Forums

Hi;

I have a joint checking account with girlfriend. Recently i had a judgment put against me for a business i owned they sent me a writ of execution and threatened to levy our account can they do this in the state of PA when girlfriend is not on judgment

Anonymous (not verified)

short answer is yes, the best thing for you to do is seporate your accounts before they garnish your bank account

Mon, 04/20/2009 - 03:44 Permalink

Yes, in Pennsylvania, the creditor can bring judgment against you to garnish your bank account, but not your wage. Since your name is present on the account, the creditor can garnish it, in spite of the fact that your girlfriend is a joint holder of the account. So I think that if the money in the account is your girlfriend's, you should immediately remove your name from the account so that it cannot get garnished.

Mon, 04/20/2009 - 05:08 Permalink

The best thing you can do until this judgement is paid in full is to have your girlfriend either remove her name or yours from this account. The wisest thing is to try and get this judgement paid so it will not effect you forever. Judgements appear on credit reports for a while and left unpaid will effect any accounts you open in the future.

Mon, 04/20/2009 - 09:45 Permalink
Frederick Von Heinze (not verified)

If your business was not a corp. or LLC, you as an individual are responible for all debts.It becomes apparent that a court action could 'freeze', or garnish(?) the account.Since your monies are commingled, it would be for your girlfriend to take action to protect her interest.She must PROVE her case. A' partnership' class of business would mean you and your partner are responsable for the debts incurred. Next time go LLC.

Sat, 08/01/2009 - 16:05 Permalink
Ted Rickey (not verified)

I have a judgement against me personally, and I want to start anLLC. I want to open a checking account for the LLC that is not subject to a levy. How can I?

Tue, 04/06/2010 - 13:41 Permalink

Not real sure, but if it has your name tagged to it you may want to have a one on one with your bank that you will be starting the account with, they will know the rules surrounding an LLC and what can and can't happen to an account listed with it.

Tue, 04/06/2010 - 14:29 Permalink
roy (not verified)

In Pa can a joint spousal account be frozen? The judgement is against 1 spouse.
Can my social security benefits and pension checks be taken?

Sat, 02/19/2011 - 15:08 Permalink
DeeEss (not verified)

Roy, I don't know if the question has already been answered, but I'll assume it hasn't.

Yes, it can be frozen. The way around this is to maintain separate accounts. It's possible you could have a joint account on top of this, but you should call your bank's lien department and ask if a levy against one spouse means that the other spouse's sole account (the one without the judgment) could be hit by that as well. I do know that if a joint account is in the negative and gets closed, the debt can be pulled from accounts from everyone on that account.

Wed, 03/09/2011 - 20:12 Permalink
Jennifer (not verified)

The same thing happened to me, a law office had placed a levy on our joint bank account(we live in PA), the lawsuit was against only my husband and the bank account was in both of our names. The bank told me to fax a copy of my marriage certificate to them as it was illegal in PA to levy a bank account unless both parties were on the judgement.

Fri, 07/20/2012 - 02:43 Permalink
matzcrorkz (not verified)

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Tue, 08/05/2014 - 20:37 Permalink