[ I live in NY and I've been in default for a few months
in paying about $3,000 I owe on my Discover credit card
so Discover's collection agency sent me a letter saying
they are going to get a "judgement" against me, but I
don't know what that is. ]
It is a formal written direction from a court saying that the debtor
owes whatever is the amount the court awards plus whatever may be the
applicable court costs, directing that the judgment debtor pay that
sum plus accruing interest in an amount established by whatever is the
case specific combination of underlying agreement or by statute.
What will the judgement do exactly?
Besides the above, authorize the judgment creditor and certain persons
acting on the judgment creditor's behalf (e.g., the relevant local
sheriff) to use the means provided by applicable law to try to collect
from whatever if any assets they can find that are not made exempt by
law from such "execution" and "turn over" and related enforcement even
if the judgment debtor does not want voluntarily to pay the judgment
and also provide a basis for credit reporting companies accurately to
note the judgment's existence and degree or not of its satisfaction in
credit reporting records relating to the judgment debtor.
I have no assets except for my salary, and no bank account.
This is not a defense against the underlying breach of contract (your
failure to pay what you borrowed and owe) unless that contract says
that it is a defense nor a defense against efforts by or on behalf of
the judgment creditor to try to collect on the judgment by whatever
means are provided by law.
Can they garnish my wages?
This is the most common such means.
How would they find out where I work?
First, they probably already know. Second, they can ask you
informally or by way of formal post-judgment procedures your wilful
noncompliance with might subject you to contempt of court sanctions.
Third, they can make what they consider to be an educated guess then
verify whether that guess is correct with whoever they reasonably
believe may be your employer by using post-judgment depositions or
written questionnaires designed for that purpose.
Related rights conferred in a creditor holding a validly obtained
judgment are to use those same sorts of post-judgment discovery
procedures to question third-parties under oath who may be holding or
who have an expectancy soon to have in their custody or otherwise
under their control property belonging to the judgment debtor or in
which the judgment debtor has some interest and then to try to obtain
the turn over of such money or other tangible or intangible things of
value to the extent not made exempt by law while at the same time
preventing the judgment debtor from having access thereto.
IOW, a valid money judgment is a kind of "hunting license" that
authorizes the judgment creditor to look for and then to take the
non-exempt portions of the judgment debtor's present of future
property and apply that property to the satisfaction of the judgment
plus accruing interest thereon.
I will be able to start making payments in a few weeks.
Whether this would persuade Discover or its agent or Discover's
assignees from holding off from suing and whether you should or should
not try to communicate with them to try to arrive at a payment plan
that might include a compromise in the sums you must pay (or not) is
not meaningfully determinable just from the facts you so far state.
But do be alert to what probably is a related consideration depending
on what your underlying credit card or other borrowing agreement says
-- namely, that it is likely (you should verify this) that you also
agreed to reimburse your credit card providing creditor for its
reasonably incurred attorneys fees and related collection costs and,
if so, be aware that trying to raise not merited defenses or maybe
just trying to delay may increase the principal amount you owe by a
perhaps considerable sum.
I just wanted to find out about this judgement
thing before I call them. Any advice would be
greatly appreciated, as would any other helpful
hints.
You don't provide enough information about your overall credit/debt
and financial status and reasonably forseeable expectancies to enable
very much advice, except that you ought familiarize yourself with all
the terms/provisions of the relevant agreements, verify the
correctness of the amount claimed, and avoid communicating with the
creditor or creditor's collection agents in a manner that they are
likely to find not credible (and so don't make promises that you know
or ought know that, realistically, you will not be able to keep).
