You get something called an “income execution”. Here in the state of NY, it’s served on the “debtor’s employer” who’ll deduct a set amount of no more than 10% of the employees gross wages, subject to limitations.
At one point, I got 2 or 3 employees of mine whose paychecks are garnished, one of them for child support.
You’ll have to first get a judgement before you can do this. After you get a judgment, and fail to collect it, in small claims, in NY, there’s a form one can print off the net, and follow the directions for the “income execution”.
But the first IMPORTANT thing is you have to know where this person works, and where are his assets. If you have to obtain this information, you get it via an “Information subpeona” directly from the debtor.
But, you’ll have to know where he currently resides to send the subpeona.
Posted by John Merchant on May 23, 2006 at 11:12:21:
Collection on a J against a D with unknown assets is very iffy.
I think I’d start by finding out what, if any, RE the D has in his own name in his home county.
If you don’t find any non-homestead property, then I’d advise you to use one of the investigation sites like www.KnowX. com and see what they might find.
FYI, most J’s go begging and lawyers’ file cabinets are filled with old & worthless ones.
If your J hasn’t been “abstracted” (recorded in Deed records) that’s the first thing you must do so as to cloud title on any RE he might own…and the D probably hurried to sell or convey any RE he had after he got sued.
If you learn he DID convey RE after he got sued, you need to hire a lawyer to try to set that J aside. This is often done and lots of RE is recovered that way.
I was the employer of a deadbeat with about 200K in judgments against her. She rents, and her car is in her sister’s name.
One creditor was swift enough to garnishee her salary. But when I took over the business, she went part time, and we notified the “marshall” that she’s even exempt from that, and notified the creditor through the marshall that we are no longer garnishing her salary. She was paying about $50/week.
She then got some threatening phone calls from the crditors attorney, and we did some research on what they can do to her in NY State. We found that:
A debtor is allowed only one TV set. Since she’s got three of them, two of them can be taken away.
She’s only allowed one wrist watch, so any others can be taken. Jewelry can be taken as well.
Non essential items, like PC’s, can be seized.
In NY State, they allow seizing bank accounts as the last step, though she keeps no bank accounts as a precaution.
She told me that she would consider paying the creditor something if they play hardball, take her TV sets, her PC etc, and other stuff from her home. She mentioned her husband would kill her if it happens.
While the laws vary state to state, its possible to make a deadbeat sweat, even though it might not be that cost effective.
I worked at a business that got judgments against a debtor, and when they failed to collect, seized a number of the debtors’ PC’s and made it diificult for them to work.