Ask Me Help Desk - Levy on my account due to my father's debt

Thanks, Lord! I found this forum.

I'm very frustrated at this moment.
Last night(5/3/2009 @ 9:00pm) I found out that there's levy placed on my checking account. Someone took a little over $6000 from my checking account a few days ago. So, I called my bank to see what happened. The representative gave me a contact info to the officer of superior court who sent this levy order.

I was able to reach him today and found out that an attorney for the casino in NJ requested this levy to collect my father's debt. My father went to the casino a year or two ago and then loaned $6800, and didn't pay back. The levy amount was for $7760, they took $6000, I deposited another check of $1200 before I found this out, and I guess they will take this money.

My father's name and my name is just off by one letter, and his SSN and mine are different by one last digit. Bank claimed that they had to do this because it's a legal order. I argued against my bank asking why they let this happened while the name & SSN are different, bank said names were too similar with perfect address match and there wasn't SSN indicated on the legal documents they received for this order.

I spoke to the attorney as well. He said just over the phone conversation couldn't verify my identification being different person from the person they are chasing after. He told me to wait until he sends me "motion to turn over fund" and then respond to this documents as I want. The officer of Superior Court who filed the order to bank told me that I can file an objection at any time.

Does this mean that I have to go to New Jersey Superior Court while I live in Raleigh, North Carolina? I won't be able to make a trip on weekdays due to my work.

I have nothing to with his loan owed to this casino. Only thing I did was that I wrote a check for my father for $300 when he tried to pay the payment arrangement he made after Civil Summon. Obviously, this wouldn't make me reliable or responsible for his debt. I guess it's just information conflicts since my father's info is very very similar to mine. And, maybe because I wrote them my check, giving my bank info to them.

I don't see any reason I can't get this levy and money taken returned to my account since obviously it's not my debt at all but my father's. However, I'm very scared and frustrated that I could lose this money somehow. $6000. It's my tuition and bill money. I can't live without it. I'm already being charged for a number of overdraft fees.

I wonder what I have to do exactly, what I need to be careful about, and whether I have to hire an attorney for this matter.

No, the bank can not take the money if the social is wrong.
** but it is scarely that there is only one difference in numbers, I have never heard of that before, just the difference in age should make a couple of numbers difference, and the date and time issues.

Are you both immigrants and became nationalised citizens at the same time or something?

So I have to be honest that social security issue makes me worry about the story being true

But anyway, you file a motion with the court that the money was taken illegal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

No, the bank can not take the money if the social is wrong.
** but it is scarely that there is only one difference in numbers, I have never heard of that before, just the difference in age should make a couple of numbers difference, and the date and time issues.

Are you both immigrants and became nationalised citizens at the same time or something ??

So I have to be honest that social security issue makes me worry about the story being true

But anyway, you file a motion with the court that the money was taken illegal.

Thanks for your quick answer, first of all!

Yes, we both came to the US at the same time and applied for SSN at the same time as well. Both my parents' and my SSN are off by one digits. The attorney was skeptical about me being different person from my father because all info's almost matched.

When I file a motion with the court, do I have to file it with New Jersey Superior Court or my local court(North Carolina)?

Unfortunately you do have to file a motion to vacate in NJ courts, but you can have a attorney do this for you.

The attorney can get also apply for a release of the attachment. And serve that on your bank. The money has not be taken yet, just frozen giving you time to protest. I would also think about suing the plaintiff for mistaken identity. Ask your attorney about it.

Once you get the freeze released I would take the money out and put it into a different bank

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottGem

Unfortunately you do have to file a motion to vacate in NJ courts, but you can have a attorney do this for you.

The attorney can get also apply for a release of the attachment. and serve that on your bank. The money has not be taken yet, just frozen giving you time to protest. I would also think about suing the plaintiff for mistaken identity. Ask your attorney about it.

Once you get the freeze released I would take the money out and put it into a different bank

I tried to find an attorney for this matter, but am having hard time finding reliable ones. I have no one familiar with this, and I just can't trust anyone I found online or in the yellowbooks. Any recommendations or whatsoever?

I would like to sue them if that is possible. I wonder if I can win it because they did not do anything wrong but file the levy request with my father's info. But it was the bank who levied my account following the order they received. The bank had to do so because of the matches in the information on the document except one letter in my first name. Both the bank and this attorney have holes to make themselves not responsible for this happening.

Plus, I doubt whether I will be able to get the legal fees due to resolve this issue. I don't think the plaintiff will pay for it? I mean this attorney works for the casino. He might have dealt with thousands types of debtors. I just want all my money back without losing anything. I can even deal with 3x $35 overdraft fees if I can get my $6000 back.

I have bad feeling that this issue will go deeply into worse situation due to the information conflicts between my father and me. What's worse is, my father is not in this country anymore, he got deported back to our home country, meaning that this attorney wouldn't want to miss this chance to get some money from our family.

You mentioned being in school. Does the school have a law school. Sometimes you can get a law student to take on the case pro bono. They can then contact someone in a school in NJ to appear for you.

I agree that you may have a hard time suing if both parties acted in apparent good faith. But you should have no problem getting the writ vacated if you can prove that your father and you are different people.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottGem

You mentioned being in school. Does the school have a law school. Sometimes you can get a law student to take on the case pro bono. They can then contact someone in a school in NJ to appear for you.

I agree that you may have a hard time suing if both parties acted in apparent good faith. But you should have no problem getting the writ vacated if you can prove that your father and you are different people.

Thanks a million for your help Scott!

What would be the effective way to prove that?
Like what kind of documents?