I just received a letter from the Nyc Marshall stating that I have to call them and make a payment within 20 days from August 17, 2011 or my wages are going to be garnished.
This all started at the beginning of this year when I received a letter from a law firm about an old debt. A judgment had been placed on that debt on 2007 and they were bent on collecting it. Before I was going to make sometype of payment arrangement I wanted to to verify the debt by giving me the amount owed, interests, my signature to the original contract and a statement from that account.

The only verification they gave me was a judgement from 2007 the amount owed and interests. When I challenged the validity of my signature to the contract an a statement they sent me yet another copy of the judgment. I even sent a letter offering for a settlement and put up a price they replied with a letter saying to call their office. I didn't call their office because through past experiences of dealing with debt collectors and from I read they are shady characters and I wanted everything in writing plus I wanted for them to fully verify the debt first. With that said, I then sent another letter asking for the specific verifications that I haven't received and even told them I was a victim of identity theft a while back and I needed to know if this debt belonged to me and they replied with a letter that said that my time for getting full verification on this account had expired years ago and that they were tired of playing games with me through the mail and were not going to reply to any of my letters and were looking into proceeding with legal action. I told them to give me some time for me to investigate, but I was just buying time because I did not know how to proceed. Time went by and I thought their bluff subsided until today I got this letter from the Marshalls office.

I'll tell you the truth I don't recall ever receiving a judgment letter in 2007, also if they did send it out I was not living at the address they might have sent it to. I want to know if I have any chance of getting this judgment vacated in court, By reason being the judgment was improperly served and they did not give me proper verification that this account belongs to me. I'm not able to get to court until Aug.23, 2011 when 6 days have passed from the Marshalls notice leaving me with 14 days left, because that's when I get my day off from work and I am able to go. So my questions are: do I have a chance of getting the judgment vacated in court? What do I do with the Marshalls office do I agree to make up payments for the time being while the court decides if they should vacate the judgment so I don't get garnished? Or does the threat of the Marshall granishing my wages go on standby until the court decides on the outcome? Someone please help me out. I'm lost and want to get out of this. If the lawfirm can verify that this is mine I would pay but I don't think they can and possibly I can get this vacated.

It has been four years since this judgment was granted. You will have a very hard time convincing a court that you didn't know about it. It may look like you are just trying to fight it now because they have a means to collect from you. Once a judgment is granted, the collector has no obligation to verify the debt to you. In theory, they should have done this in court, although since you didn't show up, who is to say. I think that you are probably out of luck here.

It is too late to challenge validity of the debt once a judgment is issued. You first have to vacate the judgment. And having 4 years pass, is going to make it difficult to prove you were unaware. You can try submitting a motion to vacate on grounds of improper service. But that is your ONLY option at this point. You need to file immediately and ask for a temporary stay to prevent the garnishment.

You can have someone file for you, but you will need to show up in court for the hearing and it will not be scheduled at your convenience.

Even if you get the judgment vacated, that will only delay things. They will serve you properly before you leave the courthouse. If there is any chance that this is a valid debt, I would try to settle it.