Hello all:

I have a question regarding bankruptsy:

I got divorced last September and won a property settlement judgement in the amount of $9000.00 my lawyer garnished her wages and I received 1 payment for $375.00. Then I received a bankruptsy notice that she has filed bankruptsy and she is seeking relief from the debt. The garnishment has been stopped and now I need to know how to defend the judgement and what forms are necessary to be completed for the defense of the judgement in court... All help will be appreciated


Thanks
JOHN

Hello john:

Defending your judgment is a lot more than just filing a few forms. If you REALLY want to defend your judgment, you'll hire a lawyer - or let the one you have do his work.

However, if you want to feel like you're doing something for yourself, go to your local college bookstore and buy a copy of "Rules of Civil Procedure" for the particular court you'll be filing in. The rules will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about your forms - how to type them, the font they want, how big of margins they want, how it should be addressed, how it should be signed, how many spaces between this and that, etc.

The only thing the rules won't tell you, is what to say.

excon

PS> If you're looking for forms that simply let you fill in the blank, you ain't going to find any. Oh, you might find some at nolo.com, but, like I said, if lawyering was just filing forms, they wouldn't have to go to school for 10 - 12 years.

I'm wondering what you think defending the judgement will do? She isn't challenging the judgement. If she wanted to do that she had her chance at the judgement hearing.

What she is doing is filing for protection against the judgement under bankruptcy laws. All she has to do is prove that she can't afford to pay all her bills. The judge will look at her financial standing and either grant her protection or not. Usually, if there is some financial hardship, the judge will order the debtor and creditors to make some arrangement for payment or debt reduction. But there is nothing for you to defend. You should have a representative at any hearings to plead your case for not having the debt dismissed.

You can file varoius motions with bankruptcy court, to challenge the entire bankruptcy on specific grounds

You can if your judgement was for property, ask it be considered a secure debt which is treated differently in bankruptcy

But in general the other person in a divorce filing bankruptcy not to pay debts is a common thing, so all I can say is to go visit the attorney who did your divorce or hire your own attoreny tofight this. ( I can't say if you have any way to or not, without knowing all the details, and since we don't practice law on here, still the only real answer to tell you is that she has a right to file, you have a right to hire an attorney and try to stop it)