I just received wage garnishment in New York state, I received a collection notice a few years ago, started paying but stopped due to unforseen circumstances, but did not notify the cc company. So the "debt collection agency said they attempted to notify me. So this week I found out all of a sudden they garnished my wages and I can't afford this amount . My question is, I never had a court date or anything , is there anything I can do to reduce this- the Debt collector will not work with me now unless I come up with 30% of the debt. My mortgage is behind, my husband is out of work, and no we are not getting much money back from income tax. Any help would be appreciated.

GDleos

If they are garnishing your pay... they got a writ of garnishment from the court.. and they got that after a hearing they won when you didn't show up.

You can try to argue it... but you are going to have to prove you weren't served... odds are they CAN prove you were.

Good luck doing that however... since that happened years ago and you never contested it. You might have had a better chance back then.

What I suspect happened, is they got a judgment against you long ago, but didn't exercise that judgement because you had entered a payment agreement. When you stopped paying they used the judgment to get a writ of execution.

If that's the case, there is a thing you can do about it short of declaring bankruptcy. Even if they only recently obtained the judgement by default because you weren't informed of the hearing, the best that you can do is get the writ temporarily vacated. To do that you would have to file a motion with the court that issued the writ to vacate the judgment on the grounds of improper service. But that's basically a delaying tactic. They will serve you properly before you leave the courthouse. Then go back, have the judgment and the writ reinstated. And the garnishment will be back.