Need legal advice..

[okusooner]

I do have a lawyer but even he doesn't sound like he knows what he is doing. I'm shocked this is even possible but here is the scenario.

I did an asset purchase of a company 3 years ago including purchasing existing service contracts and also included a non-compete clause. Contract stated I was not going to be taking over or operating the existing LLC. It also stated that i was not assuming debts or recievables. Contract called for payments to be made to an individual not business entity for 20 months. 6 months after the asset purchase, I recieved a garnishment notice for the LLC owned by the individual, i owed money to.(she stiffed a supplier money and didn't pay for stuff ordered , The items were a perishable item, not an asset i purchased) I called and told her about it and she threaten me with breach of contract if i didn't pay her because the garnishment was in LLC name. Also said she would ruin the services contracts that i had purchased from her so i continued paying her till Attorney told me i had to pay collection attorney.

I made all of my payments of to the collection attorney which is most of the money that the individual would have gotten. 2 months ago i celebrated paying my obligated monthly requirements. Yesterday i recieve a letter from my Bank letting me know that 29,000 has already been taken out of my account. The Collection attorney filed a garnishment summons against not only the original LLC but also did an a/k/a against my LLC. I have to provide proof to the bank within 10 days that what the Sleaze ball Collectiion attorney filed is not valid. In the mean time i have to worry about paying employees rent and keeping a buisness going without a large amount of capital gone.

My attorney said he is filing a motion to vacate judgement. (whatever that means) i don't have much confidence right now. How long does it take to file a motion to vacate to work. What is the fastest way i can stop this? Also how do i untangle myself going forward? (my attorney already said he will have to research that because he doesn't know) Said getting a stay he will file but getting untangled will be difficult.

What advice do the attorneys have for me. Also since my attorney is not educated in this field what kind of attorney should i hire.

Collection attorney said he would return the money if they could keep some money for their client.(this is a freakin shakedown)

My question is how do i untangle myself from having being tied into the judgement. Also this Collection attorney took my banking information off the checks i was writing him and just added an a/k/a to garnishment and has put me on the hook. What recourse to i have against him. If i would have known this i would have paid him in cashiers checks.

 

[pasotex]

What state are you in? Typically, a garnishment is something that you can only do after you have filed suit and obtained a judgment. From your description, it does not sound like you were ever served with a lawsuit. It is possible that you are having to pay the amounts that you should have garnished although I am having trouble following your facts.

 

[busterbrown16]

Man, sounds like a pickle. I think you will be hard pressed to find any lawyer on here that can give you solid legal advice based on these facts. There are just so many holes and unknowns. Paso is right though, you typically would not have any liability for a garnishment unless the garnishing party received a judgment, filed a writ of execution and then proceeded with a garnishment action. And your bank should put you on notice of the garnishment action as well and allow you to respond. Did you assume the prior debts of the company when you purchased it? That is what it sounds like to me. It also sounds like the garnishor doublie dipped (if you paid off the debt and he also garnished your bank account, but this is hard to tell from your description) and that you may have caught them in a little double dip scenario. If that is the case, the lawyer/garnishor would have some major explaining to do.

This is FAR from my area of expertise, so I am sorry I cannot be of much help. You need a lawyer that is experienced on both sides of collections and that would, in a perfect world, also have some business law experience since this arises out of a purchase of a business and the contract terms are critical.

As far as your question about vacating a judgment, this could take a while (up to a few months depending on the county and the court's docket). If you are in danger of losing the business then your lawyer needs to put any potentially responsible parties on notice so you can preserve a potential claim related to the loss of your business or related causes of action due to this mess (if it happens).

Good luck, man. Hate to see this happen.

 

[NickDanger]

Your facts are needing some clarification, but perhaps this will help you in your thinking. Garnishment is conceptually this: Don't pay her because she owes me. Since you owe her, skip over her and pay me directly. Most of the "her"'s fight that concept and most of the "pay me"'s have to first get a judgment against the hers and then sue for a judgment against the "You"'s who owe the "Her"'s.

Sounds like there really isn't a bank involved, but if you deposit money with a bank then the bank owes you. If you owe someone else, then I could sue your bank and get a judgment that compels the bank (who has no right to keep the money anyway) to return your deposited money to me, skipping over you.

Garnishing current wages is not terribly relevant since there are special rules, but the concept is that you get the employer to turn over the paycheck of the employee to you instead of letting them cash it.

*edit: reread that and even I can't understand it. I guess I'm not retired enough

 

[okusooner]

Well here is what is happening now. My lawyer who is also a friend brought in help since this type of law is not his specialty.

Just talked to new attorney said he looked over the case and said there are several problems me being garnished. Main thing is we are not the debtor. When my attorney originally filed a motion to vacate ,it was accepted. A motion to reconsider was filed by the collection attorney without the court letting my attorney or me know.

He is going to file a new motion to vacate judgement and is going to try to keep them from ever trying to collect money from me again. Also said that he thinks the collection attorney tried to defraud the court by not only proceeding with collection activity against the original debtor but then adding my LLC to the post garnishment summons with an a/k/a statement. Pretty sleazy in his words. I guess the next thing to do is to file suit for legal fees.

 

[NickDanger]

It is normal and usually negotiated for the garnishee's attorney's fees to be paid. It is assumed that you have a duty to see if you have to respect a garnishment action with adice from legal counsel. It is also usual that the judgment debtor has to pay those fees. Typically $500-750. It is NOT usual for you to have to pay to vacate any judgments out of YOUR pocket. If the original debtor wants YOUR debt to HER to somehow not be satisfied by you paying HER creditor, that is HER responsibility.
IF the judgment in garnishment against you is not valid, then it is kind of a gravy trough for your attorney to **** with them. Hard to feel sorry for them, but YOU should not ever have to feel any shaving nick for the whole thing financially.

 

[pasotex]

Is this matter pending in Texas or Oklahoma?

 

[okusooner]

Oklahoma..

 

[pasotex]

I suspect the procedures are somewhat different than Texas particularly since some of the stuff you are describing sounds alien to me. The general principles should be similar.

 

[okusooner]

This just gets better and better, Attorney filed a stay for the garnishment, request to vacate this and all future garnishments plus a request for a hearing. Stay was granted and hearing set for 3rd week in JUNE. My Bank, the worst one in world, Bank of America now said they wont release the money till the hearing. Talked to my attorney and he said that bank should release money with the stay that was granted. If plantiff wins, they can get another garnishment but Bank of America legal processing dept. said no but they have escalated it to their attorneys. No they will not call my attorney and we can't call their attorneys. They will review it when they can and let us know when our money will be put back in our accounts.

 

[NickDanger]

If you want to have some fun with BOA, PM me.