Can they request copies of my bank statements?

[cooper62]

law firm with a judgment against me wants me to send them my bank account number and copies of my bank statements.

any way to legally NOT give them this information??

thanks

[Downto0]

I had a discussion with the clerk of court in my county one time about this. He said that the judgment creditor could file a proceeding which would ask that the court order a judgment debtor to basically give up its financial information.

I can't think of any reason why the court would not issue this order being that everything is legitimized. Upon receiving this order, the judgment debtor must comply otherwise face sactions for contempt of court.

This filing of the appropriate proceeding is probably the lawfirm's next step. You have already received the "good faith" letter.

You asked for any way to stop this proceeding...bankruptcy would be one and filing your own proceeding to vacate the judgment would be another.

I think you understand bankruptcy. Vacating a judgment would entail bringing forth reasons why the judgment should not stand. If, for example, the lawfirm garnered a default judgment, you could claim that you were not properly served - which is true of many default judgments.

You need to get this thing back into court and have it vacated otherwise you probably will be facing an order to produce.

[admin]

law firm with a judgment against me wants me to send them my bank account number and copies of my bank statements.

any way to legally NOT give them this information??

thanks

Unfortunately, yes - but I might just offer them an account summary. The less info divulged, the better.

Have you thought about a motion to vacate, as was brought up?

[cooper62]

Thanks for the suggestions!

As far as the bank statements go, I don't get paper statements anyway, so I just did a cut-and-paste of the high-level information.

Vacating the judgment: I don't know what grounds I would have to vacate. I submitted docs to the attorneys (responses, etc), but I froze and missed the court date (an especially difficult time in my life). Any ideas?

Another interesting wrinkle: this same law firm is now preparing to sue me for another debt (credit card account sold to a collection agency). Isn't it a bit unfair that they can use information collected for one case when they have a second case with a different client?

thanks - -

[admin]

Somtimes you can still vacate and give a good reason why you didn't show up. I would give it a shot. You have nothing to lose except the filing fees.

[Downto0]

Take a look at this article about vacating judgments:

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/legal/VacatingJudgments.shtml

You may be able to convince the judge that whatever happened to make you miss the court date was something you could not control and should be given another chance. Or, that the lawfirm's evidence was really junk and that the judgment should not have been issued anyway.

You should also start looking for FDCPA violations on this firm to put a little pressure on them. You might be able to cause them so much trouble on the next claim that they will settle with you to you liking on everything.

Another thought, if you had any thoughts of moving out of state, now would be a good time. The lawfirm would then have to domesticate the judgment with that state. This would take time and money and, depending upon the amount of the judgment, they probably wouldn't do it.