Dealing with very nasty Attorney

[themiker]

I recently had a 16k debt transfered from Discover to a realy nasty attorney located in Washington ( I'm located in Oregon )


I called discover who then gave me her contact information to make payment arrangements. My fault I waited that long but I had lost my job and was living off temp work. The fact my BF was looking for work did not help either.

I now work and have direct deposit but my job is not garnishing, instead she took 75% of my money in my checking account out last week.


Now I am considering bankruptcy and after speaking with a friend who runs an appartment complex I know it won't hurt too much trying to rent a middle class apartment. Plus I have 5 years perfect rental history where I'm at.




I guess my question is with out knowing my credit score which is probabaly somewhat low is , is it worth claiming bankruptcy? I have nothing oweing on anything in my home, we did not go out and splurge or buy tons of stuff. Most of my bill is from having discover pay off my college bill durring tough times.

Also how often can they collect money out of your bank? Once a week>? Twice a month?
Any advice?

[themiker]

I was living off temp work while I sought full time work, Discover did call alot but would not accept 25 dollars a month, the debt is 16k which I had set up on auto pay to pay on college debt. ( last 16k of money owed for college loans )

Discover sent it to the attorney who took out 75% or 600.00 out of my checking acct that I use to pay rent. I ended up having to take a payday advance just to make rent. This is solely my debt.

Anyways I contacted the attorney to make payment arangements but she was very rude, wanted to know how I got the number. When I told her discover gave me the number and asked if I could make payment arangements and offered 75 dollars a month she said it would barley cover interest and even if she made arrangements she would still garnish.

Before when I was making less than 1k a month nothing happened, but now that I make 1500 a month it seems like she can just take everything in checking.


I guess Monday I will stop dirrect deposit to my checking account, I really don't want to close it but I will just not keep any money in it. I can cash my checks, deposit the exact amount for bills and pay them online, check or over the phone...

Or am I better to close it and open a different account at another bank?
If i go into bankruptcy..
Will this also hurt my ability to rent an appartment if I have 5 solid years of perfect rental history? 16k on discover is all I owe and yea its a lot but its not from anything but college loan.


Thank You very much for your help. I will pass it along.

[StartingOver08]

The attorney has your account information. If you continue to deposit (use) the account, it is easy for the attorney to sieze the funds since she has the info already.

While you are in this position, protect yourself. Open up another account at a another bank or CU. Or go to a completely cash basis with no bank account. Some people on this board have used the cards - like the green dot type cards. Look for the posts explaining the benefits and features of those cards. The main benefit is they are not considered bank accounts and the cash placed on those cards can not be siezed - which would help you now.

As to what BB2U was asking - if you post your entire situation, we can possibly help or at least post ideas for you to check out.

Right now it seems, from what little you have posted, as if this is your only debt and you have very little income. If this is the case, bankruptcy may not be right for you - kinda of like hitting a fly with a sledgehammer. There are other solutions to work out this one debt. If you have other debt, then BK might be the solution. It is difficult to tell without more detail of your entire financial situation. (Just general info)

[AngelinaCatHub]

I cannot see how an attorney can just pull money out of an account. This is stealing. He has to have some legal reason and the OP still has not stated of she was sued. Permission must be granted to do this in some form or agreement of the past. I believe it it was not, small claims court could get that money back real quick. "Themiker" tell us more or you will have several confused "helpers" here that cannot give you adequate advice with inadequate information. 'Hub

[treehugger1]

Were you sued? If so, and a judgment was entered against you, then:

1) Your wages are subject to garnishment (25% of takehome pay.) Writs of wage garnishment can last 90 days and then must be renewed in Oregon. I believe that an attorney only needs to file the writ with a court clerk once the judgment has been entered.

2) Non-exempt monies to the amount of $7500 depositied in bank accounts are exempt from seizure. However, if money was exempt frmo seizure, you carry the burden of proving the money was exempt. Lie wage garnishment writs, bank levies can be renewed over and over again. I also believe that the attorney does not have to keep going to the court to renew a bank garnishment writ. However, in Oregon, the writ is only good for the day the bank receives it. But, the attorney can keep sending a new writ on a daily basis.

If it were me, I would close the account. I would not simply withdraw all the money. Everytime they attempt a seizure of you bank account, the bank is going to charge you a fee; $25 - $75?

Again, we need to know if you were sued and have a judgment against you. Call your county clerk and ask then to see if you have a judgment against you. Better still, go down to the courthouse. They should have a public computer (or many) and you can access the ODJIN (Oregon Dept. of Justice Info Network.) The program is a bit clunky, but you can figure it out and look up any civil matters filed under your name.

The fact that the attorney is from out-of-state means nothing. It is very likely that the attorney also holds membership in the Oregon BAR.

Did you give the attorney your bank account info? If you used your bank account to pay Discover, then teh attorney may have already had that information.

I would not share any more information, including your new employer, with anyone, unless you were asked to divulge such information before a judge.

What is your total unsecured debt?

I would be very careful of keeping your bank account open due to the possibility of successive back-to-back seizures.

I'm not an attorney, so keep in mind the above are just my own interpretations and/or experiences.

[catleg]

If you make 1500/month (gross) then you're exempt from wage garnishment.
Please explain a little more about what happened with the bank account, was this a judgment executed against your account or did they just withdraw the money? You probably need to abandon that bank account in any event, because it appears you've lost control over it. No sense getting any money direct deposited there.

[treehugger1]

In Oregon, I believe the wage garnishment exemptions are 40 times the minimum wage or 75% of take home, whatever is larger. Oregon has it's own wage garnishment rules. 40 times the federal minimum wage is 290 dollars per week or $1160/month.

[treehugger1]

[themiker]

I cannot see how an attorney can just pull money out of an account. This is stealing. He has to have some legal reason and the OP still has not stated of she was sued. Permission must be granted to do this in some form or agreement of the past. I believe it it was not, small claims court could get that money back real quick. "Themiker" tell us more or you will have several confused "helpers" here that cannot give you adequate advice with inadequate information. 'Hub

I have a judgement against me for 16k . I was served with papers, went to get free legal aid, was told by them " Let them get the wages to garnish "

[themiker]

Discover 16k Student Loan
US Bank 3k US Bank CC Student Loan
Captial One 3k Various living expences


A judgement was set against me. When I was served with papers I sought free legal aid from a free legaa aid service.

The lady I spoke with told me I was judgement proof at the time and to not bother going to the hearing. She told me what would most likely happen is my wages would be garnished once I started making so much money.

Instead what happened was I had my checking account garnished for about 75% aka 600.00

600$ is what I make for 2 weeks worth of pay. Only Discover served papers against me for the money. US bank and captial one both are willing to work with me.

With intrest piling up I am leaning towards claiming bankruptcy but still not sure.

[themiker]

My employer offers Citibank Paycard, would that be considered a garnishable bank account? I would still have to carry enough cash to pay for stuff other than rent and utilities, as I am sure they charge for going over a certain amount of transactions per month.

[catleg]

Sorry, I was a little off about the exemption amount. Surest way to get the right answer on the internet is to post a false statement/wrong answer.
Sounds like they shouldn't be allowed to take the money from your bank account. Maybe you should go back to legal aid and have them file an opposition to the writ of execution against the bank account. How long ago did this happen?
Anyway, it's going to be tough dealing with them now that they have a judgment. I don't think debt settlement may be a viable option anymore. You might want to do a ch 7 bankruptcy.

[jadams]

Since you mention the debts are student loans, I don't think a BK filing will help much. Student loans are not dischargeable.

You should be able to motion to get at least some of the money back that was taken out of the bank account, but the burden is on you to prove that the funds were exempt.

[catleg]

No, I don't think that's correct. Just because the charges on the card were for school tuition, doesn't make it a student loan. Now taxes might be another story.

[themiker]

The student loans were paid off with the discover card, so if I claimed bankruptcy it would be on discover, not any remaining amount owed to the US goverment for student loans.. Does this sound right?