Received Judgement notice today - how long until garnishment/levy???

[girlgator95]

Hi All,
We will be filing for either CH7 or CH 13 in a couple of months (still paying attorney fees). Today, we received a judgement notice. Is there anything we can do to stop a garnishment or levy? If not, how long does it take for the garnishment to happen? We live in Florida. I would appreciate your advice.

Thanks!

[jetsfan2010]

Who is the garn from?

[disconapper]

Is this a notice for a court date or a notice that the judgement has already been entered? You want to avoid a judgement as much as possible. Is your attorney on retainer? It wouldn't help to have him give the company a call if he is willing to do so. I received a summons about a judgement on a Saturday, that Monday I put a BK Attorney on retainer, he called and had the case was dropped...but I did file 3 weeks after putting him on retainer.

[frogger]

If this is only a judgment, then more steps must be taken for a garnishment or levy. You probably have another 30 - 60 days. Your mileage may vary....

[girlgator95]

The judgement is from Mazda Financial for $ owed on a leased vehicle that we surrendered. It was a notice of judgement entered, not for a court date, unfortunately:-(
How will this effect us if we end up filing CH13? Do you think it's likely that they would levy our bank account? I'm wondering if we need to stop using our bank and just pay bills w/money orders.

[Freddy03]

I have received 2 judgments in FL. One started wage garnishments right at 45 days after final judgment was recorded with the courts. The other one hasn't done anything since the judgment was awarded. If you have retained a lawyer already I would call the judgment creditor and give them the name. They may not want to proceed b/c it costs them $$ to file writ of garnishments.

Good Luck!

[bcohen]

As soon as you receive notice of an impending lawsuit, you should close all bank accounts immediately or drain the balance below your state's nonbankruptcy exemption. In your case, since the judgement has already been awarded, I suggest you do so today! Unlike with wage garnishment, which in most states allows for an appeal/objection before the employer actually begins to process the garnishment, bank levies work with the element of surprise. In other words, a judgement creditor looking to seize the funds in your bank account is not going to provide any advance warning so you can take the money out--they're just going to serve the bank with papers to process the levy and you won't even realize this has happened until your debit card gets declined or your rent/mortgage check bounces. And at that point you likely won't even have the money to pay your living expenses going forward.

I know that if I get hit with a lawsuit, the first thing I will do is close all bank accounts and keep the cash in my apartment. It's much easier to stop the creditor from taking your money in the first place than it is to fight to get it back, and that's even assuming you have some legal basis for exempting the funds.