[nheffington]

I recently received a bill from a collection agency requesting an amount due from a past apartment complex. I disputed the bill because it was much more than the original judgement amount. I did not receive a response and then 2 months later was notified that my wages were going to be garnished. I submitted a garnishment hearing request on April 25, 2008 and just received a notice of a court hearing set for tomorrow, May 20, 2008. My question is:
1. Is the collection agency responsible for responding to my dispute before moving forward with a garnishment?
2. If the court fails to schedule a court hearing within 10 days of my hearing request, is the court still following due process?
3. If the court fails to follow due process, can the case be dismissed?
Any help (asap) would be great!
Thanks

[Fr_Chuck]

1, no, not if there is already a judgement, you had your day in court at the time of the judgement. They are not at this point collecting an unproven debt but collecting a judgement.

2. yes unless your state requires a court date within a certain time frame, merely allowing a court date is all that is normally required

3. you had due process, so the judgement is already valid, and can be collected, you may get that specific garnishment request dismissed but they can merely refile a new request, you will have to over turn the prevous judgement to stop the debt collectoin process