Ask Me Help Desk - Possible Judgement / Bank Levy!

I am getting notices from a collector that could indicate the
possible chance of a judgement after several years...

I have no job, employment, or anything of value in my name..
however; my wife does earn a good income, and we do have
a joint account, and the debt is only in my name only...

I am not so concerned with the judgement; however I am
concerned they could attempt to levy/freeze the joint
account in attempt to take money that does not belong
to them.. like taking wife's income to pay my debts...

This is what I have found for MN so far:

The states have a hodgepodge of rules that govern money held in joint accounts, but Minnesota has adopted the Multi-Party Accounts Act, under which the person who deposited the funds, owns the funds. In order to garnish or levy funds in a joint account, a creditor must first prove who owns those funds. This only makes sense; you do not get to take Joe’s money to pay Jimmy’s debt

Minnesotans may sue if a debt collector levies funds in a joint account

What I am really afraid of is that the collector that
brings the levy, may not even care about MN law, who
is to stop them from freezing the funds to begin
with? As the bank is just doing what they are told
to do... and what happens if the accounts are frozen,
do they just sit there with the seized funds.. surely
they are not turned over immediately... Does MN
banks honor this law? It does not make sense to
freeze a joint account so to take jans income to
pay for jacks debts that are in his name...

any comments?

Thanks

I find nothing to indicate that joint funds aren't exactly that - joint. What one owns, both own. Same with liens against real property. While this may very well be the law I do not believe any creditor is going to have the patience to sift through an account and determine which party made which deposit. It also seems that if bills which benefit both parties are made of the one account the account belongs to both people.

Do you have the Statute?

The only thing I had on this was posted on the above link on a MN atty's blog...

I could remove my name on the savings account which holds most of the funds... if I removed my name, then they would at least not be able to levy the savings...

So if I get you correctly, you are saying that my wife's income should be responsible just because I hit the send button on the computer? It does not matter if they have patience or not.. if they want to take accounts, then they can take the time to sift.. in my case it would be fairly easy.. I have had no deposits in my name in over a year...

But why should my wife be held responsible just because they can
Not collect from me... she is not on
The debt, part of the debt, or even
A co-signer, so why should her income even be considered as repayment?

This is why we put our legal names on documents... the collection industry wants to take someone else's money to reply, regardless if it is her debt or not, and just because my name is on the account, they think it is fair game... If my wife wanted to be part of the debt and take responsibility to repay, then she would have signed off as being part of the debt, which she did not...

OK, yes they can freeze the joint account, but normally after hiring an attorney and going to court she can get that lifted on "her funds"

Much easier for her to open her own account in her name only to have funds put into.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

ok, yes they can freeze the joint account, but normally after hiring an attorney and going to court she can get that lifted on "her funds"

much easier for her to open her own account in her name only to have funds put into.

How about if I just removed my name from the account?

If your bank lets you do that, I have found on joint accounts banks just won't do that, but make you open a new account.

When I got divorced, my wife and I went in to take her name off one account and my name off another, they refused to do it, and made us open new accounts and close the old joint ones. may just be our bank, but had that over the years in several banks

If yours will do that, great

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

If your bank lets you do that, I have found on joint accounts banks just won't do that, but make you open a new account.

When I got divorced, my wife and I went in to take her name off of one account and my name off another, they refused to do it, and made us open new accounts and close the old joint ones. , may just be our bank, but had that over the years in several banks

If yours will do that, great

I think we will do just that...

I wonder if a consumer atty can help reduce the debt? Seeing that all my debt would expire in a year or two, I maybe getting more of these
type of judgement letters... I guess it would be better to pay a little now
to get them taken care of rather then face the full value of them later
with interest...

Quote:

Originally Posted by dsimms101

so if I get you correctly, you are saying that my wife's income should be responsible just because I hit the send button on the computer? It does not matter if they have patience or not..if they want to take accounts, then they can take the time to sift..in my case it would be fairly easy..I have had no deposits in my name in over a year...

but why should my wife be held responsible just because they can
not collect from me...she is not on
the debt, part of the debt, or even
a co-signer, so why should her income even be considered as repayment?

I'm not telling you how things SHOULD be. You asked for the Law and that's what I gave you to the best of my ability. I understand your point about what is joint and what is not; however, if your wife benefited (and I don't know that she did) from any of this debt I think she SHOULD be responsible for some of the payment of that debt.

Note, again, that what I think and what the Law says are two different things.

FrChuck is right - close the joint accounts, open individual accounts unless you believe 100% you are correct and want to prove a point by challenging a freeze on your joint accounts.

As far as making payments instead of allowing a Judgment if you have no assets, no income I don't see any creditor making such an arrangement with you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dsimms101

I... all my debt would expire in a year or two,
...I guess it would be better to pay a little now
to get them taken care of rather then face the full value of them later
with interest...

If the SOL expires in a year or two, making payment on the debt would be a bad idea. It has the effect of renewing the SOL period.