Can they sue my 83 year old MIL ??

[albacore44]

Hi team, been a while. have a question. My 83 year old mother-in-law lives with me. She made the mistake of co-signing for a motorcycle for one of her grandsons (not mine) a couple of years back. well he has defaulted, and HSBC had been harassing her. Now a local attorney has the account.

her only income is a small pension and social security. she does have an annuity stuffed away. I believe the debt is less that $10K. She is very worried. I keep telling her she is collection proof. I hope I'm right. i'm tempted to call this attorney for her and tell him he's wasting his time and move on. what do you think ?? Can they take her income or annuity ??

[MSbklawyer]

The social security cannot be attached, that much is sure. But the pension and annuity may be reachable depending on the exact legal character of it and your exemptions scheme.

But the debt should be reduced by the amount of the sale of the bike -- or does the 10K already reflect that?

[Bell30656]

First, anyone can sue anyone. You can sue God because the sun isn't bright enough in the morning. The more important issue is do they stand a chance of winning. This is one of those cases where I think a consultation visit with an attorney is in order. Calling the creditor's attorney would probably raise your blood pressure as I'm sure he/she would tell you just how he/she would make your MIL's life bad whether or not he could do anything. A good local attorney can really give you some insight that we mortals cannot as they know the state's laws and more importantly... loopholes.

[GoingDown]

If she is a co-signer, they will win the lawsuit against her regardless of her age or any other circumstances.

The Social Security is safe as long as it goes directly to a S.S. debit card. She might want to arrange for one of those now through Social Security.

Then pension may be exempt. Check your state's exemptions. If not, they might be able to get at it and garnish it.

The annuity is in jeopardy. She might want to think about cashing it out before they get their hands on it. It will probably cost her, but it will cost her even more if they seize it before she gets a chance to cash it out.

Of course, you need to remember, that these debt collectors only know what she or you tell them about her resources. They may not know about them.

If it's only $10,000, maybe the family could get together and pay off this thing for her so she won't have to deal with this mess. Get the settlement in writing before you pay a dime. And that grandson needs to get a second or third part-time job to pay back the family for this mess.

[albacore44]

so this morning I get a call to my house phone, cell phone and my daughters cell phone looking for my MIL. boy these guys are good. somehow the cross referenced all our phones. out of the 25 or so CC's I had in my BK only 1 managed to get my cell phone. so I read this guy the riot act for calling me looking for her. I Told him, ok, you made first contact, so send her a letter so we can send you a cease and desist. It's the Law office of Curtiss Barnes out of anaheim california. grandson will be filing BK in Jan-Feb, and occording to him, 2 BK attorneys told him no judge in his right mind would rule against a little old lady in a case like this. we shall see

[GoingDown]

I hope you're right. I would like to think that a judge would show some compassion for an 83 year old debtor. I don't know if they have that discretion to just ignore the law, and most of them seem to be on the creditor's side, not the debtor's side. By filing BK, the burden of the debt will now fall completely on the co-signer. The debt will not be extinguished by the grandson filing bankruptcy, it will just shift completely over to the grandmother.

I hope no one ever co-signs for that kid again.