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I received the garnishment papers on the 10th of November, and my paycheck has already been garnished. However, my hearing date is not until April 05, 2010. What about due process, don't I have to see the judge first?
Hi shadriscol,
I believe I would contact the court and find out if they have been given permission from the judge to start garnishment already. If not I would request something from the court stating that and give it to your employer. That should take care of it until you can get to court.
shadriscol, I would call the courthouse that issued the judgment and see who placed it there. If you did not appear at a court hearing then they could have gotten a default verdict but you said that wasn't until a later date. If you act quickly you may be able to get the judgment vacated if it was a creditor that won a case against you and you did not get informed to appear. You need to make the call or trip to the courthouse first and see exactly how and who is attaching your wages.
Hi Shadriscol,
How is it possible that garnishment has already started without any trial? Didn't you get the summons for court trial? If not, then you have time to vacate the judgment and the collection agency or the creditor has to compensate for garnishing your wage. It is only after a trial date that the court passes a judgment against a debtor. After judgment the creditor must meet the state attorney general and seek permission to garnish your assets. Garnishment starts only after that. If none of these have been followed, then you must visit the court personally and check the details. Moreover, the creditor cannot garnish your entire wage.
Garnishment
My friend just went through a similar situation. She never received anything until a month ago from her job. The paperwork was for wage garnishment. At first she did not know who it was, so she went to the court house. She filed a wage exemption and financial statement(she needed time to investigate). Now she has the paperwork from the court. The account is SOL in California. She was also never served. She will file a motion to vacate this judgement based on SOL. You need to go to the court and see what is in your file. Then find out the civil procedure codes in your state. This will get you started.