Re: freezing bank accounts from ALLEGED debt incurred when he was a child???

Posted by ingenue (66.56.24.244) on January 13, 2004 at 21:39:49:

In Reply to: freezing bank accounts from ALLEGED debt incurred when he was a child??? posted by Jess on January 13, 2004 at 10:21:42:

1. Your friend could not have incurred the debt 19 years ago because 19 years ago he *was* a minor, and minors can't enter into binding contracts. It doesn't matter that he's not a minor now, since he would have been when the alleged debt was created. So, the debt could not possibly be valid in the first place.

2. Even if a debt *is* valid if someone is sued over a 19 year old debt, all they have to do is show up at court, say "Your Honor, this alleged debt is 19 years old, therefore past the Statute of Limitations, and I request this sleazy lawyer's lawsuit be dimissed with predjudice." FYI, the Statute of Limitations is 6 years in CT and NY.

3. I don't think an attorney can freeze a bank account unless he has already successfully sued and received a judgment against your friend. He has to have the court's order to freeze the account. Your friend should contact his bank and find out the number for the court order that they are following to freeze the account. He should also contact the courts to find out if there is a judgment against him from this attorney.

4. If there a judgment does exist, and your friend never heard about this before, it's likely that this attorney sued your friend, but did not have him properly served with the paperwork for the lawsuit. Your friend can file with the court to have the judgment vacated based on the lack of proper service.

5. If your friend's bank account is frozen, and there *is* a judgment against him on file at the court, then this is probably what happened:

Shady lawyers are known to sue over debts that they *know* are past the Statute of Limitations. If the shady lawyer intentionally fails to "serve" the lawsuit paperwork to their victim, their victim doesn't know that they have to come fight it in court.

If the victim doesn't show up at court, the judge will let the shady lawyer win his lawsuit by default (even if the debt is bogus, or the victim wasn't served, etc.) That's why you're allowed to go back and ask the court to throw out the judgement against you - because you were never given the opportunity to defend yourself.
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I hope that's more clear.

Oh, and I'm not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.

Your friend should get himself a lawyer, though. You can hand the other lawyer's butt to him on a platter over this one

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