supoena

[lifelessons]

My son accepted a supoena that is for my husband from an attorneys office that wants him to come in for a deposition and bring with him a form completed about our financial background. A judge didn t sign it ,a lawyer did
and the civil process server didn t give it to my husband. Could they hold him in contempt if he doesn t show up? They already have a judgement. What do they want blood?

[no_it_all]

No, they are not looking for blood, probably cash or other assets to satisfy the judgement..

[SinkingFast]

They're probably wanting to get an idea of your financial status.

Do you have some jewelry, a car, or some other asset they can liquidate to pay the Judgement.

Many States word their Garnishment Laws to say "X% of disposable income". Could be their looking to find out how much disposable income your Hubby has that they can garnish.

It's untelling exactly what type of financial info they're looking for. One thing is for sure, tho. Whatever info you provide will definitely be used in determining payment. They are a debt collector. And as such, any information you provide them with can be used to collect payment on what you owe.

[GoingDown]

My son accepted a supoena that is for my husband from an attorneys office that wants him to come in for a deposition and bring with him a form completed about our financial background. A judge didn t sign it ,a lawyer did
and the civil process server didn t give it to my husband. Could they hold him in contempt if he doesn t show up? They already have a judgement. What do they want blood?

This is called a Judgment Debtor Exam in some parts of the country, a Hearing of Assets in other parts, etc. Yes, they could hold him in contempt of court if he doesn't show up, but the strictness with which this is enforced varies from county to county and even judge to judge. In some parts of the country, if he doesn't show up, they will give him a second chance to show up, this time at a "Hearing To Show Cause". If he doesn't show up for that one, a judge could issue a bench warrant for his arrest and he could be arrested and then spend a few days (or more) in jail until the judge can arrange for another judgment debtor exam to take place.

How old is your son? If he was under the age of 18 when served, then you might have a possible to defense to it. They are only supposed to serve adult residents at your address.

Unfortunately, your husband had better show up for it and answer their questions. Just remember to answer their questions wisely. They are looking for any non-exempt assets. If they find any, they will try to take them and sell them to pay off the judgment or a portion of it. Find out which assets are exempt in your state, and bring a copy of that with you to the deposition. If any of your assets are exempt, say that during this deposition. Do not bring any fancy jewelery or even cash with you to this hearing. They can use a "turn over order" to demand that you give it to them right then and there, because they already have a judgment. In fact, be careful about what you tell them about your cash or non-exempt assets. While lying about your cash and non-exempt assets could get you into a great deal of trouble, that only happens if they can prove that you lied about them. For example, if you have $25,000 of cash stuffed under your bed, and you tell them about it, technically you are doing the right thing and obeying the law, but guess what? They will demand that you turn over that cash to the sheriff to pay off their judgment. Now on the other hand, if you are fairly certain that there is no way they will ever discover that you have $25,000 cash stuffed under your bed, then you would be a fool to tell them about it. Technically that would be perjury, but only if they can prove that you lied about it, and if they don't know about it in the first place, and you have reason to believe that they would never find out about it, then it would be foolish to tell them the truth about it.

So, my point is this... try to figure out what assets they can find out about by doing some research and investigation on you-- usually this would be real estate, checking accounts, stocks, bonds, vehicles, etc., and any wages from jobs where you pay income taxes, anything that leaves a paper trail-- and figure that you will have to tell the truth about them. Anything else you might want to keep your mouth shut about. For example, if your husband has a second job where he is self-employed and getting paid under the table, and they don't already know about it, then don't tell them about it.

Can I ask you what questions they are asking you on the form they want you to bring to the deposition? Sometimes the questions are illegal or unethical and they are not allowed to ask them, but they realize that you will probably not have an attorney with you to object to any of the questions or to answer any of the questions on your behalf. If it is something you don't feel comfortable answering, tell them that. Tell them that you are at a disadvantage since you don't have an attorney to help you answer the questions. In some cases, you can simply state that you take the 5th Ammendment and that you refuse to answer the question on the basis that it may incriminate you. This may not fly in front of a real judge, but since they are trying to do this in their office instead of court, this is what they deserve. Later, if they try to get you for contempt of court, you can claim that you were ignorant about the law and that you assumed the 5th Ammendment applied to this sort of questioning (unfortunately, in reality, it only applies to questions asked when you are charged with a crime, not in civil cases). They are holding the deposition in their office to save money on legal and court fees. If you refuse to answer their questions, and make it hard on them and more expensive for them to get the answers, they may be less likely to keep calling you in for depositions over and over again. This is their way of scaring and harassing you into paying their judgment as well as finding information to use against you. Don't let them bully and scare you into answering questions which might come back to haunt you.

If you can afford to hire an attorney, this would be the time to do it. If nothing else, you can demand that the deposition take place in front of a judge in a court room (neutral territory) rather than in the creditor's office.

[scammer]

This is called a Judgment Debtor Exam in some parts of the country, a Hearing of Assets in other parts, etc. Yes, they could hold him in contempt of court if he doesn't show up, but the strictness with which this is enforced varies from county to county and even judge to judge. In some parts of the country, if he doesn't show up, they will give him a second chance to show up, this time at a "Hearing To Show Cause". If he doesn't show up for that one, a judge could issue a bench warrant for his arrest and he could be arrested and then spend a few days (or more) in jail until the judge can arrange for another judgment debtor exam to take place.

How old is your son? If he was under the age of 18 when served, then you might have a possible to defense to it. They are only supposed to serve adult residents at your address.

Unfortunately, your husband had better show up for it and answer their questions. Just remember to answer their questions wisely. They are looking for any non-exempt assets. If they find any, they will try to take them and sell them to pay off the judgment or a portion of it. Find out which assets are exempt in your state, and bring a copy of that with you to the deposition. If any of your assets are exempt, say that during this deposition. Do not bring any fancy jewelery or even cash with you to this hearing. They can use a "turn over order" to demand that you give it to them right then and there, because they already have a judgment. In fact, be careful about what you tell them about your cash or non-exempt assets. While lying about your cash and non-exempt assets could get you into a great deal of trouble, that only happens if they can prove that you lied about them. For example, if you have $25,000 of cash stuffed under your bed, and you tell them about it, technically you are doing the right thing and obeying the law, but guess what? They will demand that you turn over that cash to the sheriff to pay off their judgment. Now on the other hand, if you are fairly certain that there is no way they will ever discover that you have $25,000 cash stuffed under your bed, then you would be a fool to tell them about it. Technically that would be perjury, but only if they can prove that you lied about it, and if they don't know about it in the first place, and you have reason to believe that they would never find out about it, then it would be foolish to tell them the truth about it.

So, my point is this... try to figure out what assets they can find out about by doing some research and investigation on you-- usually this would be real estate, checking accounts, stocks, bonds, vehicles, etc., and any wages from jobs where you pay income taxes, anything that leaves a paper trail-- and figure that you will have to tell the truth about them. Anything else you might want to keep your mouth shut about. For example, if your husband has a second job where he is self-employed and getting paid under the table, and they don't already know about it, then don't tell them about it.

Can I ask you what questions they are asking you on the form they want you to bring to the deposition? Sometimes the questions are illegal or unethical and they are not allowed to ask them, but they realize that you will probably not have an attorney with you to object to any of the questions or to answer any of the questions on your behalf. If it is something you don't feel comfortable answering, tell them that. Tell them that you are at a disadvantage since you don't have an attorney to help you answer the questions. In some cases, you can simply state that you take the 5th Ammendment and that you refuse to answer the question on the basis that it may incriminate you. This may not fly in front of a real judge, but since they are trying to do this in their office instead of court, this is what they deserve. Later, if they try to get you for contempt of court, you can claim that you were ignorant about the law and that you assumed the 5th Ammendment applied to this sort of questioning (unfortunately, in reality, it only applies to questions asked when you are charged with a crime, not in civil cases). They are holding the deposition in their office to save money on legal and court fees. If you refuse to answer their questions, and make it hard on them and more expensive for them to get the answers, they may be less likely to keep calling you in for depositions over and over again. This is their way of scaring and harassing you into paying their judgment as well as finding information to use against you. Don't let them bully and scare you into answering questions which might come back to haunt you.

If you can afford to hire an attorney, this would be the time to do it. If nothing else, you can demand that the deposition take place in front of a judge in a court room (neutral territory) rather than in the creditor's office.

That was an excellent post. I was wondering about those, I need to get one of these against a medical student that did some damage on a rental property to the tune of $2,800. How do you know so much about how these work? Were is the list of what is exempt from taking for ILL? what about a married couple with three cars?

[GoingDown]

That was an excellent post. I was wondering about those, I need to get one of these against a medical student that did some damage on a rental property to the tune of $2,800. How do you know so much about how these work? Were is the list of what is exempt from taking for ILL? what about a married couple with three cars?

Here is a list of Exemptions for Illinois...

http://www.illinoisbankruptcy.com/exemptions.html

If they have three cars, you can take two of them and auction them off. If each car is worth more than $1200, then you can take all of them and auction them off, but the sheriff will have to pay them $1200 out of the proceeds of the auction for their exemption amount.

Some of my friends and relatives have been sued and I've learned a lot from them, and I've done some research on the issue as well. I've even spoken to some local attorneys about it.

You have to serve them with the notice of a debtor's hearing before the statute of limitations has expired on your judgment. It varies from state to state, so check your state's laws for more info. For Arizona, that is 5 years, unless they renew the judgment. From what I can tell, most Arizona judgments are never renewed.