Court this am-what a freaking joke that was....

[catleg]

This is one of the issues with the internet. When people really believe something and are passionate, and others call them liars and are equally certain.
At some point you do your due diligence and make your best guess about what you believe, UFOs, FEMA prisons, banks holding back millions of foreclosures for 2-3 years (at least one of those 3 is true!).
Bottom line, while I don't think debtors normally are jailed to force them to pay, and I have never personally heard of it happening, I have to allow for the small chance that somewhere, sometime it has really happened.
Kind of reminds me of the Big Boy vs Big John feuds. :-)
And I'm glad I don't live in Mass, though I am a Red Sox fan. :-)

[NHC]

Debtor's jail??? If there were such a thing I'd have had bunk with my name engraved on it if that was the case....along with a lot of other people I know....

Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong...but this is what I understand.....

The summonses and Judgements we are usually talking about here (resulting from non payment of credit cards and such) are the result of a CIVIL process...not a CRIMINAL Process....therefore, owing the debt does not result in jail time and does not in and of itself constitute a crime....it usually results in a garnishment if you fail to pay the amount agreed upon in the time agreed upon.

Now...let's say you wrote a bad check for something....and they prosecuted you (which they can very well do) and you plead guilty (and you've done it maybe 12 other times)...the judge may well give you jail time...particularly if you fail to pay restitution and court fines.

One thing that would not surprise me is Deputies watching the civil lists to see if anyone is due to show up who may have other matters pending (bench warrants for example) and perhaps plucking their errant person out of Civil court to solve their matters with the criminal side of things.

I highly, seriously doubt that any Sheriff is going to come to my house at 2 am and knock on my door to arrest me because I owe money on a bill and I'm late paying.....that's almost ludicrous and I'm sure the boys in blue have better things to do on any given night other than to chase debtors out of their beds...especially in a city the size of Denver....they'll do that if you owe child support...but not because you didn't pay your Credit card bill!

Has it been used as a threat by a collections lawyer?? It would not surprise me for a minute if it has been used numerous times....these guys will stoop at nothing to bully the average person -whom they assume has the IQ of a squash - with whatever means they can to squeeze some blood out of the turnip.....is it a threat they can legally enforce?? I don't think so....

[catleg]

The judge did order the debt to paid in 30 days. The judge did say that if it was not paid, jail time would result for contempt of court for not obeying his order.

What's more, I am not the only person he said that to.

OK, so we have this allegation, and the story in the Boston globe about the woman who gave up the rings off her fingers. I guess if you are dumb enough to show up for court with property in hand that can be seized by the deputies to satisfy a judgment, it can happen.

I have no doubt that a judge could issue an illegal order, and it might even be enforced, for a while.

But seriously, don't you think eventually the judge is going to get busted? Wouldn't you like to help grease the skids for that to happen? :-)

I've read the NJ cases of judicial misconduct and it's interesting reading. Most of it is verbal misconduct.

Incidentally, here in NJ, you can be arrested for failing to respond to an information subpoena from a creditor, however it requires a motion to the court, of which you get notice, and then it can only happen during (very roughly) the court's daytime business hours, it is not the same as arrest and get thrown in gen pop with the crack heads.

[jacko]

I have a judgment from crap one. I foolishly sent back my debtor exam to them not knowing that I could of ignored it and forced them to spend additional collection money to get the court judge involved to order me. Lucky for me, they apparently never received my debtor exam even though I dropped it off at the post office but not via registered mail. I have a copy with notary that I complied. Not my fault they never received it. Thank You USPS! A month later they sent me one of two legal notices that they seized my since closed checking accounts. They can not find my current checking and does not show up on my Chex report.

The bottom line is, unless a judge orders you to comply with debtor information, just ignore the judgment creditor. Just make sure you protect your cash by being proactive like opening up a Wal Mart money card and protecting non exempt assets like vehicles. Have a family member place a lien on your vehicle. Plus know your rights on garnishment. If you are single and head of household, your first $1004 net income is exempt. Reset your withholding exemptions to zero for a fatter refund via check not direct deposit.

Yes, I mentioned the debtors exam earlier as the most common way to get a contempt of court if you don't show or lie under oath. But that has nothing to do with simply not paying. How is a judge going to decide you are hiding assets? He is not involved in the debtor exam in any way. It is between you and the creditor attorney.

The Haitian guy jailed for 28 days had violated a court ordered payment for a roofing job complaint. He must have signed a repayment agreement when he was sued - it was approved by the court - and he violated it. He was also in trouble with other county courts and had been arrested for drugs earlier. Sounds like he was "targeted".

You should NOT be agreeing to a repayment plan when you go to court. That is ridiculous. Let the judgment holder try to collect the normal way - by finding and seizing your non-exempt assets. Anyone that gets hooked into repayment plan in court is foolish. Again - default judgment debtors don't have this problem.

There are many BK members here that have money judgments on their record and have not paid a dime on them. Has any of them ever been jailed for being judgment proof? You are trying to tell me being "collection proof" and having a judgment is a crime and you can be sent to jail? Please...

Where are the all the judgment holders on this forum? Speak up! How much time y'all done since your judgments?
I can think of a couple dozen regulars on here with judgments - never paid - are they posting from the jail-house?

[catleg]

jacko does raise an interesting point about failing to comply with a stipulated judgment. That is a court order, in a way. Not sure how they would handle that one here in our creditor friendly state.

[NHC]

jacko does raise an interesting point about failing to comply with a stipulated judgment. That is a court order, in a way. Not sure how they would handle that one here in our creditor friendly state.

Here...it's a garnishment...if they can't get money that way....it's assets...plain and simple....

OH...but I do believe in the UFO theories...

[catleg]

I used to know a pit boss in Vegas, he was a "retired Nasa engineer".

He believed, and said one time he saw something 'that could not be of this world'.

[NHC]

Yeah me too once....after 3/4 bottle of Jack!!!

[frogger]

There were lots of debtors in the courtroom who were in handcuffs after having been arrested in the middle of the night.

I don't know of any nice way to say this, so let me just spit it out.

That's complete and total bull-shit.

Which credit card company do you work for???

[pileated]

I don't know of any nice way to say this, so let me just spit it out.

That's complete and total bull-shit.

Which credit card company do you work for???

I was there as a defendant, it was true, and it scared me to death.

[NHC]

For shiggles....is it quite possible that these were people who were already in custody for a criminal offense and the Deputies brought them down from county to appear in Civil?? I talked to a buddy of mine who works in the jail systems and he said "yes, if they have a verifiable court appointment...even civil...we'll escort them down to court and then bring them back into the jail for their criminal offense..."

OH...and let's consider something else. Most counties are way short on funds. The lockups are so full that unless it's a violent crime (or you're a habitual offender) they're trying to avoid locking people up....so why would they even waste time and valuable county money on sending to lock up a debtor when the DUI guy is out in like 12 hours?? My buddy said that if he saw someone in lockup for owing money on his credit cards he would laugh himself silly and then put himself in the same cell in his off hours....

[music12]

i guess the bottom line is, some people report what they have seen, others may choose to believe or disbelieve them.

as far as busting a judge, that's one of the hardest things to do. it took years to bust a judge who ordered lengthy jail sentences to juveniles simply because he was getting money from the private facility that was operating the jail. it took years to bust a judge who took bribes in divorce cases. it simply is next to impossible.

[Faust]

I don't know of any nice way to say this, so let me just spit it out.

That's complete and total bull-shit.

Which credit card company do you work for???

I'm with you on this one!

[pileated]

I was there as a defendant, it was true, and it scared me to death.

I called my husband and asked what he remembered about it.

He said I had to go to court in 2005 or 2006. Despite the facts that I had no income and had a serious heart condition, the judge ordered me to pay over $3000 within 30 days.

The judge himself threatened to lock me up if I did not pay. I testified, standing in the courtroom, not sworn in or on the witness stand (which I asked to have done, and was refused), that I had no income, no assets, and had a serious heart condition, all of which I offered to prove.

My husband was not responsible for my debt at all. He filed a motion to reconsider with the judge. Before it was decided, he had a client pay him enough money to pay my bill, so he did. This was because he did not want me to continue to be terrified I would go to jail.

The judge was rubber-stamping everything the plaintiffs' attorneys wanted him to do. It was like the attorneys (there were only a couple of them) were in charge of the court room.

All of this is my memory also, and neither of us have impaired memories.

My husband also said that it made him furious to hear the deputies laughing about going to people's houses in the middle of the night or, in one case, at 5 a.m., to arrest them.

Every defendant was a debtor. This was not a criminal court.

This is the last I am going to say about this.

I am a newbie here, I realize, but I am not accustomed to being called a liar and being accused of being pro-creditor and anti-debtor, no matter what I say to defend myself. I do not like this environment. This is the first forum in which I have participated, in over a decade of forum participation, in which I have been treated like this.

pileated

[GoingDown]

I had the same experience a few years ago and I was pretty sure after watching the court proceedings all morning, that the judge was either in cahoots with the lawyers, or was lazy and just perfunctorily processing cases.

It is easy to get away with this. Appeals are expensive and few debtors can afford them or do successfully handle them pro se.

In my case, if I did not pay the amount due within 30 days, I would be put in jail for contempt of court. Period. It is de facto debtor's prison. There were lots of debtors in the courtroom who were in handcuffs after having been arrested in the middle of the night.

I think this post is from a debt collector troll trying to pose as a debtor and scare debtors into paying for fear of going to jail.

There is no debtor's prison.

Debt is a civil matter.

You will not go to jail over a civil matter.

Not being able to pay a debt is not a felony. They will not put you in jail for it.