Hello,
Someone is trying to garnish a small court judgment against my husband and myself. We aren't working right now. So we have no income at the moment.our house is on a living trust fund(we are the trusties, not the beneficiaries of the trust) and we live in fl. Is our house exempt under the homestead? One lawyer told us that the house is not protected unless you are the head of the household and you make less than $500 a week.is that true?
Please help.
Thanks

Hello miranda:

I'm curious. If you don't have jobs, how would you know that a judgment creditor is trying to garnish wages?

Is this a lawyer you hired and paid for his advice, or is this just a casual kind of thing? If it's a lawyer you hired, I'd believe him. If it's something else, then you might as well believe me, and I ain't no lawyer.

The worse thing a small claims judgment would do is put a lien on your house, if it isn't exempt. That means, when you sell the house, you have to pay the lien. Big deal. You owe the money.

Of course, if you start working again, your wages will be subject to garnishment.

excon

PS> Somewhere waaay back in my brain, I have a memory that tells me Florida doesn't allow garnishment. I don't know. Maybe somebody will come along who has a better memory than me.

Generally a primary residence is exempt from attachment. Plus you really don't own the home, the trust does. But even if the house could be used, as excon said, all they can do it put a lien on it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by excon

Hello miranda:

I'm curious. If you don't have jobs, how would you know that a judgment creditor is trying to garnish wages?

Is this a lawyer you hired and paid for his advice, or is this just a casual kinda thing? If it's a lawyer you hired, I'd believe him. If it's something else, then you might as well believe me, and I ain't no lawyer.

The worse thing a small claims judgment would do is put a lien on your house, if it isn't exempt. That means, when you sell the house, you have to pay the lien. Big deal. You owe the money.

Of course, if you start working again, your wages will be subject to garnishment.

excon

PS> Somewhere waaay back in my brain, I have a memory that tells me Florida doesn't allow garnishment. I dunno. Maybe somebody will come along who has a better memory than me.

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They were trying to garnish my bank account, not my wages and the case was dismissed. And since this was a frivolous lawsuit against me I Do Not want to pay any lien. I think that in FL your primary residence is exempt from any liens. And your weekly pay for up to $500 is exempt. Can someone double check this for me

If the case was dismissed, then you should be off the hook and not subject to any garnishment, lien or any other attempts to collect from you.

The writ of garnishment on my checking account was dissolved, not the whole case. Sorry, I didn't explained it properly. This is a foreign judgment from another state and was domesticated in FL. I had to be notified for the notice of the foreign judgment in FL, but I never received anything. I went to court and I saw that the registered mail with the notice of domestication was returned to the court not signed. I think if I had received the mail with the notice of domestication of the foreign judgment I had 30 days to fight it in court.
My question is since I was never notified for the notice of the foreign judgment can I file a motion in court to quash the foreign judgment for not being properly served?

Certainly worth trying