I have a old credit card bill. I originally agreed to pay $120 a month but haven't been able to afford that for some time. They were not willing to negotiate. Now I have received papers saying a judgement has been made against me in court. I was never served with court papers saying when to show up. Only judgement papers. Now they are threatening to garnish my wages. I have heard they cannot take my whole paycheck. Is this true? And can the court pass judgement without me being served? I work part-time and have three kids to feed. Can't afford them to take the whole paycheck. I live in MN if that helps.

They don't have to physically HAND you papers like you see on TV. If they hang it on your door at a residence you were on the record of having resided at in the past if they can't directly contact you... thats all it takes in many places.

What my opinion is about that doesn't matter as I do not write the laws. And yes... I have seen papers for past residents hung on my door in the past, I called them to let them know they tried to serve someone who doesn't reside here. What happened after that I have no idea.

Personally I would scrape up the money to get a lawyer somehow. So you don't end up making any costly assumptions.

They don't have to physically HAND you papers like you see on TV. If they hang it on your door at a residence you were on the record of having resided at in the past if they can't directly contact you...thats all it takes in many places.

What my personal opinion is about that doesn't matter as I do not write the laws. And yes...I have seen papers for past residents hung on my door in the past, I called them to let them know they tried to serve someone who doesn't reside here. What happened after that I have no idea.

Personally I would scrape up the money to get a lawyer somehow. So you don't end up making any costly assumptions.

They have been well aware of my address. I have received all the typical bill collector mail and have spoken to them by phone on many occasion. Then I got papers saying a judgement had been made in their favor. That's what bothers me. I haven't been hiding and they haven't been willing to negotiate a smaller payment because to them it wasn't going to cut it.:confused: At least they are getting something, right?

Have you called the court to see, again this may be a "scare" letter to try and get you to start paying.

But they have to serve you, now of course they could have lied to the court and said you were served ( thus saving the cost of a private service person) this appears to be somewhat common with some low level collection firms ( from what we hear here)

But the judgement will be valid unless you go to court to have it over turned due to invalid service.

There are various rules on garnishment but basically take 25 percent of the pay but they can take all the money in a checking or savings account