2 part question regarding response to summons time line & wage garnishment

[my2girls]

Hi Everyone,
(First I'll preface this with we are definitely filing either Oct. 1 or Nov. 1 counting the minutes...I keep telling myself as I think Froggers says...Bankrupcty is a process not an event! This has really helped.)

Couple of questions regarding a summons I responded to today from our CU. Had lawyer draw up response waited 25 days (had 28) and filed our response with the court today. They gave me a date of Oct. 25th as our court date to appear. My question is do we need to file prior to this court date? What happens if we go to court, do we tell them we are filing (if we haven't yet?) My DH and I DO NOT WANT TO BE GARNISHED... we both feel it could be detrimental to our positions.

Question 2: It is my understanding that the cu could turn around and file a MSJ before the court date is this correct? If so, do we still have time to file before we are garnished?

Question 3: If we were garnished, would they garnish both our paychecks or just one of ours? I know we have another summons coming from Citi spoke with them today...another story but it's definitely coming. Can more than one creditor garnish you at once?

Thanks in advance (again)

[ttg1]

Have your attorney ask the court to reschedule the court date to December 2nd. Happens all the time.

Problem solved.

[Freddy03]

Hi Everyone,
(First I'll preface this with we are definitely filing either Oct. 1 or Nov. 1 counting the minutes...I keep telling myself as I think Froggers says...Bankrupcty is a process not an event! This has really helped.)

Couple of questions regarding a summons I responded to today from our CU. Had lawyer draw up response waited 25 days (had 28) and filed our response with the court today. They gave me a date of Oct. 25th as our court date to appear. My question is do we need to file prior to this court date? What happens if we go to court, do we tell them we are filing (if we haven't yet?) My DH and I DO NOT WANT TO BE GARNISHED... we both feel it could be detrimental to our positions.

Question 2: It is my understanding that the cu could turn around and file a MSJ before the court date is this correct? If so, do we still have time to file before we are garnished?

Question 3: If we were garnished, would they garnish both our paychecks or just one of ours? I know we have another summons coming from Citi spoke with them today...another story but it's definitely coming. Can more than one creditor garnish you at once?

Thanks in advance (again)

The advice that ttg1 gave is a good if it works. I tried to reschedule one of my court dates and it was denied. I even told the judge I retained a BK attorney and I still had to go to court. Until you actually file it stops all court proceedings.

But to answer your questions:

1- If you go to court and have not filed it won't matter the judge will award the CU with the judgment if you do not have valid reasons to fight it.

2 - I'm not sure about this. It would depend on your court rules. In my 3 cases once a court date was set they didn't file for MSJ.

3 - It depends on your state laws. In FL both husband and wife wages could be garnished (for joint accounts) unless a head of household exemption is filed. The HOH exemption has to be approved by the court but until it's approved both wages can be garnished with out warning. Also bank accounts can be levied with out warning.

Google your state laws on how to collect a judgment and see what comes up.

Good Luck

[IamOld]

Good luck! The max garnishment from your check is 25% of disposable income - UNLESS your state (like NYS, or FL) has a lower percentage - NYS is 10%. ROUGHLY!!! in those states that do not have their own rules on "top" of the fed rules for garnishment, it's your gross MINUS (essentially) 40 hours times minimum hourly wage MINUS ALL TAXES taken out of your check=the amount subject to garnishment.

[catleg]

A lot will depend on which state you're in.
I read someplace that Calif raised fees a lot to file MSJ's .
So if you're in Calif you have a better chance of lasting unmolested until trial date.

[btbeme]

Even if you get an MSJ, it will take some time for a garnishment to work its way through. Even though an MSJ is a pain in the butt to scrape off, it can be delt with in BK. And I understand your concern about garnishment - my DW works in the department where garnishments pass at her company, most of them requiring her signature. It would have been...um, awkward for her to find her own in that stack.

Fear not - depending on your state, there are myriad ways to delay a court proceeding for 30 days. But you need to do your homework to get that delay. Talk to your attorney about options. You can file your own paperwork for a delay - there are many copies of great stuff circulating around there (thats how I did mine, delaying about 45 days until we were ready).