I just found out that my account was frozen for a lawsuit about an apartment. I have bills to pay, and my paycheck was automatically deposited tonight. How do I unfreeze my account, and why do they freeze your account when they garnish your wages?

They want their money now. Stop all direct deposit into this account now start paying your bill by money orders.

Well it appears they have a judgement, and once they have a judgement, they can garnish your wages and attach the bank account.

If you can prove the debt is not valid, you can reequest the attachment released, but in general if it is valid, your money is gone, so stop the direct deposit,or they will get the next check also

First, they can go after ANY assets they can find. They want to be paid. That they could this means they had already obtained a judgement against you. Did you fight the judgement? If so, then they must have convinced a judge you owed the money. You should have tried negotiating a settlement.

At this point I think you are stuck.

As others have said, stop the direct deposit now so that no more money goes into your account. Pay your bills by cash or, as mr. yet said, money orders.

Have your payroll department put a stop payment on the direct deposit and reissue you a paper check.

Have your payroll department put a stop payment on the direct deposit and reissue you a paper check.


This is a July 2007 question -

Thread should be closed.

Have your payroll department put a stop payment on the direct deposit and reissue you a paper check.

Normally I would remove an answer to a thread this old. But I'm leaving it up because it is so wrong, that it needs to be corrected in case the advice is given again.

A payroll department is not going to reverse a direct deposit, especially in a case like this. Even if they want to, since the account is frozen, any such reversal would be denied.

Its nice that you want to help, but we pride ourselves on the accuracy of the advice given here. So please be more careful about the advice you give. Also check the posting dates before answering. A post with no activity for several months (let alone a year) should not be responded to.