My husband has been disabled for over 3 years, and we just started receiving social security disability for him and our three children. We recently moved from Arizona to ny (we were in az for about 2 1/2 years, and before that also in ny-most of our debts originated in ny). Just before we moved back to ny our checking account in Arizona was frozen by one of my husband's creditors. We have been afraid to open another account in ny. Today we received some of his back disability pay and not having a bank account are having difficulty cashing a check that is well over 20k. My question is this: how long would it take a creditor with a judgement to find and freeze another account should we open one in order to cash this check? We cannot afford to lose a cent of this money. My thought is to open another account, deposit the check and wait for it to clear, and then close the account. Has anyone had this experience? Or have any advice? Would the creditor be able to seize the account in the time it would take for the check to clear, or does that take longer?

Update 1/29- bank of america was more than happy to cash this for us. We have to wait ten days for the money to come in, but they were very pleasant and understanding of the situation. It probably helps that we have an ira account with them but they didn't ask us if we were customers. Don't know if they can pull that info up just by a name or not. Also, in researching this online, I found a great many stories of people with supposedly exempt income who have had to fight to get their money back from creditors once it was seized. It's a lot of trouble and involves time in court. The bank saying your account is "flagged" or whatever doesn't help at all. You still have to prove it to the judge in the end.
Thanks to those of you who posted replies!

I believe his disablility pay is exempt from creditor's claims, but life has many unexpected difficulties. As a precaution, you may want to open the account in your name, or have your husband open accounts at two separate banks so 'all the eggs won't be in one basket'. Read several paragraphs of this: Credit Slips: Think Public Benefits are Exempt from Execution? Think Again. (http://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2008/01/think-public-be.html)

The disability is exempt. So when you open the account inform the bank that the account will only be used to deposit disability payments and therefore is exempt from attachement.