judgments

Alabama Woman Wins $24,410 Judgment Against Car Dealer for Wrongful Repossession

November 20, 2020 by Attorney Judson E Crump 5 Comments

Back in 2015, one of our clients bought a Chrysler 300 from a local used car dealership. It was a buy-here-pay-here deal, so she made her payments each month directly to the dealership. In January of 2018, she fell behind on her payments to the dealer, so the car was repossessed. Luckily, our client was able to gather the money to redeem the vehicle by paying off the remaining balance of $3,200. Redemption of a repossessed vehicle is authorized by Ala. Code 7-9A-623, and whenever a vehicle is repossessed, the secured creditor is required to send you a written notice of intent to dispose of the property before they do so. This gives you the opportunity to buy the vehicle back without losing your equity in it. Once you’ve redeemed the vehicle, it is paid for, and the dealer should transfer the title to you.

Unfortunately, after she redeemed the vehicle, the dealer decided that they didn’t want to convey the title to the vehicle. Instead, they asked for an additional $2,500. These, they claimed, were “repo fees.” But she’d already paid the exact amount they quoted her as the redemption amount. So naturally she refused to pay them any additional money. The dealership, not content to just let it go, decided to repossess her car again, even though she’d paid it off.

Not only did they take the car, but they also took her personal belongings which were in the vehicle. They refused to return these, too.

So in April 2018, we sued them for willful and malicious conversion and trespass to chattels. The case wound its way through the court system, and on November 13, 2018, the Court found in our favor and entered a judgment against the dealership for $24,410.

Here’s what a certificate of judgment against a car dealer looks like:

Alabama Woman Wins Warranty Lawsuit against Apple – Consumer Rights Attorney Judson E. Crump

October 23, 2020 by Attorney Judson E Crump 6 Comments

I’ve been prosecuting warranty cases for a while now. A few years ago, I wrote a post about the Apple Warranty. Well, evidently someone out there read my post, because in January of 2020, a client called me to ask advice for how to deal with a defective iPhone. Here’s her story.

Back in October of 2019, she bought a brand new iPhone XR from the AT&T Store in Fairhope, Alabama. The iPhone cost her $649.99. She had been an iPhone user for years, and was loyal to the Apple brand. So she had every reason to expect that this new iPhone XR would function well.

She was wrong. From the time she purchased the iPhone, it frequently and unpredictably dropped calls, even when there was a perfectly good cellular signal available. Her reception in her home was great. Her husband was on the same AT&T cell phone plan as her, and his phone never dropped calls. Also, none of her previous iPhones had this problem, either. In addition to the dropped calls, her iPhone would frequently connect a call, but then unpredictably mute the audio. She estimates that about 1/3 to 1/2 of her calls either dropped or had muted audio.

No problem, she thought. I’ll just ask Apple to replace it or refund my money. Surely, as a longtime, loyal Apple customer, they would be glad to help, right? Not so.

First, she took the iPhone to the AT&T Store. There, they attempted to resolve the issue by resetting the phone and checking to make sure that it was properly receiving signals from the local cell phone towers. It was.

After several visits to the AT&T store failed to resolve the issues with the phone, she decided to call Apple. She called them in November 2019 and spoke with them, but they refused to offer a replacement or a refund. She called again in December 2019, and spoke to their agents for hours. But again, they refused to offer a replacement or a refund.

Unable to convince Apple to do the right thing, she called our office for help. We sued Apple on February 3, 2020, alleging breach of warranty, and asking for an award of damages, plus costs and attorneys’ fees pursuant to the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act.

The Magnuson Moss Warranty Act.

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is a federal law passed in 1975 (signed by President Gerald Ford) which applies to all consumer products sold in interstate commerce that cost more than $15.00. The Act does a few things, but the most important ones are:

Written warranties cannot give you less rights than implied warranties in the UCC or common law. 15 USC 2308
Warrantors must, at a minimum, repair, replace, or refund a defective product within a reasonable time and at no charge. 15 USC 2304.
Before filing a warranty lawsuit, the purchaser of the product must first notify the warrantor of the problem and give them a chance to remedy it. Also, if the warrantor has an informal dispute resolution mechanism in place, the purchaser must first follow that procedure before going to court. 15 USC 2310(a).
If, however, the warrantor does not resolve the issue with the product, the purchaser can sue the warrantor for damages, and if you win, they have to pay your attorneys’ fees and court costs. 15 USC 2310(d).

“The provision for awarding attorney fees in Magnuson-Moss exists in order to assist consumers in vindicating their rights where legal expenses would otherwise be prohibitive.” Leavitt v. Monaco Coach Corp., (Mich. Ct. App. 2000). “Thus, the clear language of the Magnuson-Moss Act allows recovery of an attorney fee by a consumer who prevails in a breach-of-warranty action against a seller under state law, provided the seller is given an opportunity to cure.” Forest River, Inc. v. Posten, (Ala. Civ. App. 2002).

The Trial Against Apple.

When I told my dad I was suing Apple, he asked, “Aren’t you sort of scared to be going up against the biggest tech company in the world?” “Absolutely not,” I said. I knew that my client was telling the truth and that the law was on my side. When Apple answered the Complaint, they denied any wrongdoing. They said that they owed my client nothing because she had not “satisfied her obligations under the Warranty.” Before the trial, Apple filed a pretrial brief arguing that they had not been given the chance to fix the phone, and for that reason, they couldn’t be held liable for their own defective product.

Apple’s pretrial brief blamed everything on my client:

“When Plaintiff began having problems with her iPhone, she did not seek help from Apple. She did not bring her phone to an Apple store, and she did not seek to send it to Apple for warranty service.” Evans v. Apple, Inc. 05-DV-2020-900173, Document 49, p. 2. Turns out, this just wasn’t true. She called Apple more than once and all she wanted was a refund or a new phone. None of Apple’s employees ever even asked her to return the phone for repair. Nor did they send her a packing slip or any shipping instructions. And the nearest Apple Store is over 150 miles away!

In my own brief, I pointed out the fact that Apple could have easily just offered her a refund or a new phone. It was written right there in their own warranty. But they didn’t. The first time they asked for the chance to repair the iPhone was after we’d filed the lawsuit.

Thankfully, the trial judge wasn’t buying their story. At the end of the trial, he entered judgment against Apple for the cost of the iPhone, plus costs and attorneys’ fees. For most lawyers, a small judgment in a warranty case isn’t something to get excited about. But for me, it wasn’t really about the money. It was about holding a big corporation accountable for keeping its promises. And that’s just what we did. So if you or someone you know has a defective device and the manufacturer refuses to offer any help, call us. 251-272-9148.

Jefferson Capital Systems, LLC Collection Lawsuit Defeated – Alabama Debt and Credit Attorney Judson E. Crump

November 2, 2018 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

Another credit card lawsuit against a struggling Alabama woman, another victory for the consumer.

Jefferson Capital Systems, LLC sued my client for an allegedly unpaid credit card bill. They initially sued her in the District Court of Baldwin County, but we won that lawsuit, so they appealed the case to the Circuit Court. In Alabama, if you lose a lawsuit in the district court level, you can basically ask for a “do over” in Circuit Court, and the entire case starts again from scratch. Well, they weren’t happy when we beat them the first time, so they decided to appeal it and try again.

The case went to trial on October 17, 2018, and though my opposing counsel did a great job, the judge ruled that none of Jefferson Capitals’ documents were admissible in evidence, and granted us a judgment in our favor. This was a tremendous relief for my client, Ms. Campbell, who has a job and works hard, but was simply unable to afford to pay them what they were asking and could not risk having a garnishment served on her employer. This was not our first major victory against Jefferson Capital. If you or someone you know has been served with lawsuit papers from Jefferson Capital Systems, LLC, it is very important to act quickly to protect yourself from the negative consequences of a potential judgment against you. Call an experienced debt defense lawyer today. Our fees are reasonable and our record of success us proven. 251-272-9148.

Another credit card lawsuit against struggling Alabama consumers ends in victory for the people.

Vacating A Default Judgment in Alabama – Alabama Debt and Credit Attorney Judson E. Crump

September 17, 2018 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

When a collection lawsuit is filed against you, failure to file a written answer with the court can result in a default judgment. If that happens, what can you do about it?

Failing to file a timely answer to a lawsuit is a very bad thing. A default judgment is just as enforceable as a regular judgment. Legally, it is just like you went to trial and had a verdict entered against you. Fortunately, Alabama law does provide you with some help. Under the classic case of Kirtland v. Fort Morgan Authority Sewer Service, Inc., 524 So.2d 600 (Ala. 1988), the Alabama Supreme Court made it clear that the laws of our state have a strong policy favoring the resolution of cases on the merits, rather than by default. Under the rule in Kirtland, the courts are supposed to liberally entertain motions to avoid default judgments if they were entered in violation of due process or the rules of civil procedure.

As a practical matter, there are generally two reasons why default judgments get vacated: either the defendant was not properly served with the original lawsuit paperwork, or the defendant had a good reason for not answering in time, and moves the vacate the default judgment within 120 days of it being entered.

Rule 55 of the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure governs default judgments, and states that a default can be vacated for any reason within 30 days of being entered. If you ask the court to vacate a default within 30 days of it being entered, then you usually have a very good chance of getting the judgment set aside and having your day in court.

The best way to get a judgment vacated is to be able to prove that you never received notice of the lawsuit in the first place. This is not easy, though. You can’t just stand in court and say you were never served: you have to present persuasive evidence contradicting the plaintiff’s proof of service. Before a default judgment can be entered against you, the plaintiff has to file a Service Return with the court. This document states when and how the plaintiff served you with notice of the lawsuit. For instance, if a sheriff’s deputy or private process server delivered the papers to your residence, then they will file a document with the court showing just that. If the Service Return states falsely that you were served personally, then you may need to prove that you were not living at that address at the time you were allegedly served. Or you may be able to show that they served the wrong person. Keep in mind, though, that they are allowed to leave the summons at your residence with any adult who lives there.

If you were served with the lawsuit summons, then your options are narrower. Rule 60 of the ARCP governs judgments generally, and allows a judgment – including a default judgment – to be vacated within 120 days of being entered if the defendant can show that the judgment was entered due to “excusable neglect.” This includes, for instance, where a consumer debtor hired a lawyer or debt settlement company who was supposed to handle the case, but failed to file an answer or appearance on time. It could also include a situation where a consumer defendant sent an answer directly to a collection law firm, but failed to file one with the court. The most important thing to remember about these sorts of motions to vacate default judgments is the 120 day rule. If the motion to vacate is not filed within 4 months of the entry of the default, then you lose, even if you had a good reason for not answering in time.

The trial judge has a lot of discretion and may require testimony as to why the default should be vacated, but in my experience, they usually try to give the honest defendant a chance to have their day in court.

How to Reverse a Default Judgment, Part III – Alabama Consumer Credit Attorney Judson E. Crump

February 6, 2017 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

How to Get the Court to Undo a Default Judgment for Fraud on the Court.

If you were served with the lawsuit, there is still one other way to get a default judgment vacated: fraud on the Court. This is not very common, and it is not easy, either. But just what does it mean to say that a default judgment creditor has committed fraud on the court?

Basically, they lied to the Court in order to get the judgment entered.

Consider the case of Hartigan v. Hartigan, 182 So.2d 725 (Ala. 1961). A New York resident filed a lawsuit alleging she lived in Alabama and was an Alabama citizen. She did this to get the Alabama Court to take jurisdiction over her divorce. Why? A little history here: back then, Alabama allowed for quicker divorces in most states, so there was a cottage industry here of divorce lawyers who specialized in filing quickie divorces for rich people from out of town. They’d fly in, sign the papers, do a quick deposition, and their lawyers would do the rest. They’d have a divorce days or a few weeks later.

Anyway, they tried to modify their divorce 6 years later, and the court realized they were not from Alabama, and so they vacated the judgment for the lies they submitted in their divorce affidavits. The decision was upheld by the Alabama Supreme Court, and the original divorce judgment was vacated.

The same logic applies to default judgments. If a default affidavit was filed with the court and contained false information, then that is fraud on the Court and can be grounds to reverse the judgment.

Fraud on the court can come in many forms. They may have lied about the amount of the debt, or clearly miscalculated it. They may have lied about the date of the contract or last payment, so as to avoid the statute of limitations. (Note that unlike ordinary contract cases, most suits involving a repossession deficiency are subject to a 4 year statute of limitations.) They may just have the wrong guy. Whatever false statement you are complaining about has to be something important. It can’t just be a minor error like your age. But if there are demonstrably false statements in their default motion or affidavit, and these statements are material to the case – meaning that the judgment either wouldn’t have been entered at all or would have been a substantially different amount – then you can ask the court to vacate the judgment.

Judges have a lot of discretion on whether or not to uphold default judgments, so your lawyer will have to prepare the case and do some convincing. But most judges are concerned about avoiding clearly unfair results, and will at least give you a chance.

The key to overturning a default judgment for fraud is carefully reviewing the default motion and all the records in the case. Your lawyer will need to look for errors that could have provided some defense either to liability or the amount of the debt.

Vacating Default Judgments, Part II – Alabama Debtor’s Rights Attorney Judson E. Crump

January 27, 2017 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

Sometimes, Debt Collectors and Collection Lawyers File False or Bogus Service Returns to Get a Judgment Without Notifying You. Here’s what to do about that.

Last week, we discussed how to get a default judgment vacated if the Service Return showed that you were not served properly under the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure. Now we turn to a more difficult situation: where a collection lawsuit was never served on you, but the Service Return says it was served on you.

Before a plaintiff can ask for a Default Judgment, they must prove two things to the Court: a) that the amount sought in the judgment is valid, and b) that you were notified of the lawsuit in accordance with the Rules.

They prove the amount of the judgment by filing a default affidavit – a sworn statement of someone knowing the facts of the lawsuit attesting to the amount owed.

They prove that you were notified by filing a Service Return, which is signed by whomever served the papers on you and states who, when, and how the lawsuit summons was delivered to you.

Most Service Returns are correct. The vast majority of them. But there are numerous cases where the Service Return is just plain false. Sometimes people make mistakes. They may serve the wrong person, for instance, honestly believing they got the right guy.

But there are also more nefarious reasons why a sheriff’s deputy or process server may put false information on a service return: either they’re lazy and don’t care to identify who they’re serving, or they can’t find the defendant and to save time and satisfy their customers (the collection lawyers) they just sign a service return knowing that they never served the papers.

Unfortunately, where a service return states that you were served it is presumed valid. And contradicting a false service return is not as simple as just going to the court and telling the judge you never got served. You must prove that you were never served with corroborating evidence. Here are a few examples of the sort of evidence you’d need to prove a service return wrong:

You were out of town on the date you were supposedly served, and you have plane tickets, hotel reservations, or credit card charges to prove it.
The date you were served was a major event in your life that you could be expected to remember well – like a birthday, a wedding, or a funeral of a loved one.
The person they claim to have served on your behalf at the time was not living in this state, or was dead or incapacitated.
You were in a hospital or incapacitated when they claim you were served.

As you can see, these sorts of things are not often the case. If you can’t prove the service return wrong, then you are probably stuck with it. That isn’t fair, I know, but that’s the law. Now, the judge has wide discretion on this, and if you show up with witnesses and you seem very honest about never getting notified, the judge may believe you or feel sorry for you and give you a break. But don’t count on it, because if the decision gets appealed, your chances aren’t good.

If you can’t prove that the service return is incorrect based on the documents alone, then you do have another option: file the motion to vacate and have your lawyer depose the person who supposedly served the papers. This is going to cost a lot of money, but it gives you a powerful way to find the evidence you need: from the plaintiffs themselves. You get to cross examine the process server and hopefully, find holes in his story or other evidence that will enable you to prove that they were lying when they filed the service return.

The cost of locating and deposing a process server will be at least $500, and you’ll have to pay your lawyer at least that much just to file the motion and conduct a deposition. But if there is a lot of money on the line, or if you have a great shot at beating them at trial, or if you really need the judgment off your credit report to get a home mortgage loan, then it could be worth it.

Next: Vacating a Judgment for Fraud on the Court

How to Vacate a Default Judgment – Alabama Consumer Defense Attorney Judson E. Crump

January 18, 2017 by Attorney Judson E Crump 3 Comments

Once a judgment is entered against you, the law presumes that it is valid, and there are only a few ways to undo the judgment. Here’s how.

First, know that judgments are always presumed valid once entered, and the law generally favors finality of judgments. This means that if you ask a court to vacate its own judgment, the burden is on you to show good reasons why.

There are only a few grounds on which a court can vacate a judgment. Rule 60 of the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure lists them:

Mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect.
Newly discovered evidence that could not have been discovered before the judgment was entered.
Fraud, Misconduct, or lies by the adverse party.
The judgment is void.
The judgment has been satisfied.
Any other reason where it is clear and undisputable that allowing the judgment to stand would be patently unfair.

The first 3 categories have to be raised within 120 days of the entry of the judgment. So if you got a default judgment entered against you, and you didn’t know about it until 6 months later, you can’t raise any issue of mistake, new evidence, or fraud by the judgment creditor. So this is a rare remedy because most people find out about judgments months or even years after they’ve been entered.

Category #4 is the most common way to vacate a default judgment, because this category includes cases where the judgment creditor never served you with the original lawsuit papers. To get a judgment, a plaintiff must prove that they served the defendant with the summons and complaint. This is proven by a document filed with the court called a Service Return. The service return is signed by whoever served the lawsuit papers, and there are a few ways this can happen:

A sheriff’s deputy signs the document showing who was served and when.
A private investigator or process server signs the document showing who was served and when.
A certified mail return receipt is filed, showing that the document was delivered to the residence, corporate office, or registered agent of the defendant.

If you were never served with the lawsuit papers, then it is possible to get the court to vacate a default judgment. But you must prove that you were never served. The service return is presumed to be the truth.

Step One: Reading the Service Return

The Service Return will state who served the summons, when it was served, and how it was served. Here’s an example of a service return issued by a Sheriff’s Deputy:

Look at the bottom box. The deputy certifies that he served the Defendant’s mother, not the Defendant. The top box shows the address listed for the Defendant. If both of these are incorrect, that can be grounds to vacate a default judgment.

Using that case as an example, the Return shows that the defendant himself wasn’t served, but his mother was served. It also shows that the address listed by the Plaintiff was at St. Jude Circle. But in that case, the defendant didn’t live there. This is important, because service doesn’t always have to be made on the defendant personally. It can be made on an agent of the defendant (rare for individuals, unless they’re elderly and have signed a power of attorney) or anyone over 16 in the defendant’s household.

So the first thing you need to do when you want to vacate a default judgment is go to the courthouse and get a copy of the service return. If there are multiple service returns, get a copy of ALL of them. Read them carefully. Did they serve you? Or was it someone else? If it was an ex-husband, parent, baby-mama, or minor child, then that doesn’t count. You can get the judgment vacated.

If it was an adult in your household (like a spouse, parent living there, adult children, or live-in girlfriend), then you are stuck with it.

Next: When the Service Return Contains False Information

$6,000 Midland Funding Collection Lawsuit Defeated – Alabama Consumer Rights Attorney Judson E. Crump

October 20, 2016 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

Midland Funding, LLC sued my client over an alleged balance due on a Target Credit Card. We went to trial and won.

Like a lot of Americans, my client had suffered some financial setbacks that caused her to fall behind on some of her bills. When she was unable to work out settlements she could afford, she started getting phone calls and collection notices from strange companies she’d never heard of. One of them was Midland Funding, LLC.

Midland is a debt buyer, or as the credit reporting bureaus call them, a “factoring company.” They claim to purchase large portfolios of charged off debts and then seek to collect them. If you don’t pay them what they demand, they might sue you.

Luckily, the law requires that collection companies prove that they have the right to demand money from you before they can get a judgment against you. You can’t just walk up to a stranger and say “Hey! You owe $3,000 to Capital One, and I’m their collection agent. So you better pay up.”

In my client’s case, they were asking her to pay them for a debt she allegedly owed to Target National Bank. We took them to trial and challenged their proof. We won. You can read the Court Order here: Victory Judgment Midland v Delayo.

Reversing a $7,000 Bank Account Garnishment – Alabama Consumer Rights Lawyer Judson E. Crump

September 26, 2016 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

Midland Funding Garnished Over $7,000 from my Client’s Checking Account. Here is how we fixed it.

Mr. Carter had a few unpaid accounts he wanted help resolving, so he went to a local credit repair organization. They attempted to negotiate with some of his creditors on his behalf, including Midland Funding, who claimed that he owed them $9,029 for an old Sears card that he’d allegedly not paid. They sued him in the District Court of Mobile County. When he got the lawsuit paperwork, he immediately forwarded it to the credit repair folks. They said they would step in and negotiate with the collection agency for him. They did try to negotiate, but either Midland Funding or their lawyers didn’t want to deal with them (since credit repair organizations are not attorneys, creditors can ignore them if they want to), or they just could not reach an agreement that was acceptable to both sides.

Regardless of how negotiations went, nobody filed a written answer for Mr. Carter, so Midland took a default judgment against him for the full amount demanded in the lawsuit: $9,029 plus court costs. The Court entered the judgment and Midland obtained writs of garnishment. One of them went to Mr. Carter’s bank account, which contained all the money he could borrow and save up in order to try and settle his debts: over $7,000. And in the blink of an eye, it was all gone. Midland sent the garnishment to the bank the same day they sent it to Carter (which is perfectly legal in Alabama), and the bank immediately froze all the money in the account and sent it along to the Clerk of Court.

It wasn’t until after all this had happened that Mr. Carter came to see me. We filed a motion to vacate the judgment based on what the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure call ‘excusable neglect,’ meaning that even though he hadn’t responded in writing to the lawsuit within the 14 days required, he had a good reason for not doing so: he was under the impression that the case was being handled between the debt settlement company and the collection lawyers.

The judge granted our motion and set the judgment aside. Click here to view the Court’s Order. (PDF): order-granting-relief-from-judgment

The Court set the matter for trial 2 months after that, and at trial, we won a judgment for the debtor. You can see that order here: $9,000 Midland Lawsuit Win

Finally, and most importantly, all of the garnished money was released, and the Midland account was gone. You can read the court’s order to release my client’s money here: Order to Release Garnished $$$.

This case was a great example of the sorts of serious problems that default judgments can cause you. We were fortunate that there were some extenuating circumstances in this case that the judge was willing to hear. And we were also fortunate that my client came to me less than 120 days after the default judgment was entered, because after the judgment is 120 days old, the rules allow you fewer ways to vacate it.

After 120 days have passed, the only ways to get a default judgment set aside is to prove you were never notified of the lawsuit in the first place or prove that the plaintiff somehow committed fraud on the court.

If you live in Alabama and get served with a lawsuit, you should call a lawyer immediately. If you can’t afford a lawyer, at the very least, you need to file a written answer. But even if you have had a default judgment entered against you, there still may be some hope of fighting it.

How Long Does It Take to Get Garnished? – Alabama Consumer Rights Firm Judson E. Crump, PC

August 24, 2015 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

Ever Wonder What Really Happens After You Can’t Pay Your Bills?

If you have not yet had the pleasure of money being forcibly collected from you, then you may wonder just what happens if you don’t pay a debt. Of course, your creditors are probably going to threaten you with garnishments, lawsuits, and other scary tactics. Debt collectors can be even worse. And some folks fear that if you don’t pay a debt, you can have your paycheck garnished at any moment. That isn’t true. But I’m here to tell you that for most consumer debts, the collection process is a long journey that may or may not end in money actually being jerked from your paycheck. The most important thing to know is this: you can’t get garnished unless someone has a judgment against you. And it takes months to get a judgment.

The process starts when you first default on a debt obligation. Default usually means that you failed to make a payment when it came due. If you get a credit card bill asking for a $150 minimum payment due by June 1st, and you don’t pay it, then on June 2nd, you are one day delinquent, and you are in default. Under most contracts, once you have defaulted, then you can be sued. But that usually doesn’t happen.

Most creditors charge off accounts when they are 90 days delinquent. “Charging off” doesn’t mean that you don’t owe the debt; it just means that the bank no longer considers your debt to be good for its face value. Most credit card companies begin collection efforts at this time. They’ll send letters, make phone calls, and potentially refer your account to a collection agency or sell your account to a third party junk debt buyer.

Once a creditor has given up on getting paid by you voluntarily (this can take anywhere from 60 days to 2 or 3 years), they will either sell the account to a debt buyer, who will begin the collection process anew, or they will hire a collection law firm to sue you.

Once they sue you, they have to serve you with a written copy of the lawsuit. If they know where to find you, this takes a week or so at the best. Once you receive the lawsuit, you have a certain, limited amount of time to answer the complaint. In Alabama, you have 14 days to answer a lawsuit in District Court or Small Claims Court. You have 30 days to answer a complaint in Circuit Court. You have 21 days to answer a complaint in federal court. If you’ve been sued for more than $10,000, then you must be sued in either Circuit or Federal Court. If you don’t answer, or if you answer admitting that you owe the money, then a judgment is entered against you.

Once you answer the lawsuit, the case gets set for the trial docket. In District or Small Claims, this usually means you’ll be at trial in 2 to 4 months. In Circuit Court, trial will typically be 6 to 9 months from the date of your answer.

They cannot garnish you until they have a judgment. So even if you lose at trial, just by fighting the lawsuit, you can buy a lot of time. Time to raise settlement funds, or file bankruptcy, or get a new job that can help you pay things off. Or just a bit of breathing room.

Once they have a judgment against you, they still cannot enforce it against you for 30 days.

After the 30 day stay has passed, they can seek and obtain a writ of garnishment from the court. This requires them to state the employer or bank that they want to garnish. Once they get the garnishment issued by the court, they have to serve it on your employer or bank. A bank account can be zapped immediately for the funds that are in it. Your employer, however, obviously cannot withhold wages until they’ve been earned.

So to add all this up, it works something like this: a really fast and lucky creditor may move as quickly as the legal system allows towards garnishment, and their garnishment timeline will look something like this:

District/Small Claims if You Don’t Answer:

Default -> Immediate Suit -> Answer Period (14 to 30 days) -> Default Judgment Motion (~30 days)-> Stay (30 days) -> Garnishment.

Total Time Between Missed Payment and Garnishment: 74 days.

On the other end of the spectrum, a circuit court lawsuit where you don’t roll over like a dead dog will go more like this:

If You Fight:

Default -> Informal Collection Efforts After Charge Off (2 to 24 months) -> Lawsuit -> Answer Period (30 days) -> Waiting for Trial (6-9 months) -> Enforcement Stay (30 days) -> Garnishment

Total Time Between Missed Payment and Garnishment: 10 months to 3 years.

So to make a long story short, and to oversimplify an often complex judicial process, the length of time that it takes to get garnished after you quit paying someone will be at least 2 1/2 months, and could be as long as 3 years (or never!).

Of course, better still is to not get garnished at all, by either beating the lawsuit, working out a settlement, or filing bankruptcy.