My bank account was recently frozen duo to a judgment against me by a collection agency, Forster & Garbus. I have never received, by mail or any other means, a notice informing me about it or a summon to a judgment court case against me. I closed my last credit card account over 8 years ago with no debt as far as I can remember. When I called the bank they told me it was for $2.800 but they DOUBLED the amount so I am in debt for $5,600!! The attorney's office of Forster and Garbus said they attempted numerous contacts and tried to serve me with the Order to Appear! Their agent also said that my last payment to the creditors (Washington Mutual) was made in 2005, which is not true. I was told to Wright a letter or fax to the complaint department if I dispute the clams against me.
What will be the best thing to do now ?

Thank you!

First you go to your bank and get a copy of the writ of attachment. This will list the court and docket number of the judgement.

Next you go to the court and subit a motion to vacate the judgement on the grounds of improper service. State that you never received any notification about being sued.

Unless they can prove service you should be able to get the judgement vacated and release the freeze. They will probably reserve you at the court. Once they do, submit your Intent to defend stating that you do not believe this is a valid debt. Then send a copy of the Intent to defend to the plaintiff with a request for verification.

If the debt is invalid as you state, then you should be able to get the suit dismissed.

It sounds like you were sued and lost. Many times collection agencies, because they are run by stupid people, make errors. And sometimes, because they are run by stupid people, even mix up identities. So it is quite possible they sued the wrong person.

To address this you will need to become very aggressive with the collection agency to get supporting documentation. You may also need to call the court in case they aren't cooperative in terms of sharing this information. And since they won a judgment against you, they may not be. Once you acquire all this basic information (and get your files in line!), you need to get really mean with the collection agency. Tell them you don't owe them this money, will rott in hell before you pay it, and will file a counter suit for $100,000 if the issue isn't resolved IN WRITING within 60 days. After calling them every week for eight weeks, get an attorney if it isn't resolved. And make sure you get a mean, nasty SOB of a lawyer because that's the only language collectors understand.

In the interim, it looks like you will have to open another bank account.

Thank you all for your answers.

Can they go after my new bank acount if I to open one ?

First, FrankK's advice is way over the top and you don't need to go that far. In fact I strongly disagree with him that "collection agencies are run by stupid people". Sometimes they are run by amoral people, people who are more concerned with collecting then ethics, but they are not stupid.

Another thing I strongly disagree with is your having to get aggressive with the agency. You should be doing your dealing with the court, as I advised. Yes you need to request verification from the plaintiff, but its not necessary that you receive it. The key is having them produce it in court at the hearing. If they don't provide the proof in court you ask for a dismissal. If they do, you ask for a continuance to review the documents.

What is really going on here is that the plaintiff most probably bought the debt for pennies on the dollar. Usually such debts come with limited documentation. So they try to get default judgements, not always ethically. But a good part of the time, if you fight it, they will either fail to produce documentation or just not show up at the hearing. Either way you get a dismissal.

In your case, since this seems like a case of mistaken identity, the greater likelihood is they will not be able to document the validity of the debt.

The only thing I agree with from FrankK's response is to open a new account as soon as you get the judgement vacated and the writ released. Yes they can attach the new acct but they have to get a new judgement first.