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funkymalky · May 12, 2007, 08:10 PM

My husband has an old debt and we have a joint checking account. I went to the bank to question them why my ATM card wasn't working and they told me that a lien was placed on the account. First of all, is this legal? What happens now? Can they take the money from a joint account? I am the primary owner of the account. And if they were allowed to do this, what do we do now? We weren't contacted about this in all the years that I was married to him. And there's a direct deposit of his paycheck going in any day that we couldn't stop. In addition, the bank never notified that a lean was placed on the account and they charged us $150 for "legal fees." Is this normal? Please help!

Fr_Chuck · May 12, 2007, 08:38 PM

Bank does not have to notify you.
To do this the lender will have to have a judgement, they had to have a judgement against him.

You will need to file in court for a injured spouse so that you can prove it is your money. You need to do anything you can do, to stop that direct deposit, since once it goes into th bank it will be froze, and it may take several weeks to get a court date and get into court over this.

You also need to look into the orgainal judgement and see how he was served and if the service was legal.

mr.yet · May 13, 2007, 04:49 AM

Since this is a joint account most state allow for a third party claim to be file in court to get your part of the funds in that account.

Your have to File a Motion in the court that granted the judgment and lien.

ScottGem · May 13, 2007, 05:28 AM

Yes its legal. The only way they can do it is if they obtain a court order. To do that a judgement had to be issued. So I'm rather surprised that you never had any notification of it. You will not get a notification prior to the attachment, but the bank does have to show you a copy of the order on your request.

As long as your husband's name is on the account its fair game for an attachment. The fact that his paycheck is direct deposited shows its commingled funds and not yours alone.

As to the bank's legal fees, they need to show you where your agreement with them provides for that. I don't think its normal to charge such fees for processing a garnishment, but it may be normal for that bank.

So what do you do now? First, if you truly were totally unaware of the judgement against him and than means HE was unaware, then you can file a motion with the court that issued the judgement to vacate on the grounds of improper service. At that same time, you can try to prove what funds in the account were yours and what was his to get back yours.

funkymalky · May 14, 2007, 08:20 PM

Originally Posted by ScottGem

File a motion with the court that issued the judgement to vacate on the grounds of improper service.

Hey Thanks for the informative response.
What's would it take for me to file a motion to vacate the judgment? Does anyone know details about this process. My friend told me I should file an "order to show cause", but I don't know how this is done. Thank you all so much

ScottGem · May 15, 2007, 05:52 AM

Since the judgement was filed in small claims court, you do not have to be a stickler for legalese. You can do a WEB search for motion to vacate judgement to find some suggestions. But it could simply be a letter like this:

I am submitting a motion to vacate the judgement awarded <fill in details about time and place>. I never received any notification of the suit or opportunity to defend against it.

You can also contact the clerk of the court for their suggestions.

A order to show cause is not applicable here. There is no cause to show. A judgement was entered and you have to get it removed so the Motion to vacate is applicable.