NY Judgment from 2006-Living in Fl

[Bill522]

I recently found out about a judgment in NY from 2006 (I was living in FL at the time, service went to an old address from the 1980s). 

I tried a MTV in NY and it was denied because the letter by 1st class mail was not returned (???). 

I am disabled (SSDI since 2001).  In Florida my SSDI is exempt.  Do I need to worry about anything?  Can I appeal the Motion To Vacate?  How do I know about mail going to an address I haven't lived at for 40 years?

Thanks

[WhoCares1000]

6 hours ago, Bill522 said:

I recently found out about a judgment in NY from 2006 (I was living in FL at the time, service went to an old address from the 1980s). 

I tried a MTV in NY and it was denied because the letter by 1st class mail was not returned (???). 

I am disabled (SSDI since 2001).  In Florida my SSDI is exempt.  Do I need to worry about anything?  Can I appeal the Motion To Vacate?  How do I know about mail going to an address I haven't lived at for 40 years?

Thanks

You can try to appeal but I would not worry about it. The truth is that in order to collect in Florida, they would have to file in a Florida court to export the foreign judgement to Florida. You could then argue with the judge there that you were not properly served and the judge could possibly deny them the export leaving the creditor with a New York judgement and no assets to ever collect from.

As for Florida, if all that is in your bank account is SSDI payments, they cannot levy the payments or 2 months of the SSDI payments in your account (so never let the account get too large). The best they could do is put a lien on your home if you own one but they can never foreclose because of Florida's all in homestead exemption.

If you would have come to use before filing the MTV, I would have told you to let sleeping dogs lay because now they know you are in Florida and can try something.

[Bill522]

Thank you for your help and your time.  I can deal with this judgment better in Florida. 

I didn't know about the lawsuit/judgment until they sent a letter to my PO Box here in Florida.  I'll return mail I don't recognize in the future.

The important think I realized is that I need to make sure that for every place I lived in the past, the people will return the mail and not just throw it out or something, I can't even speculate really. I can't believe you can get a judgment on you if someone else doesn't return the mail, something as crazy as that.

 

Thanks again

[BackFromTheDebt]

6 hours ago, Bill522 said:

Thank you for your help and your time.  I can deal with this judgment better in Florida. 

I didn't know about the lawsuit/judgment until they sent a letter to my PO Box here in Florida.  I'll return mail I don't recognize in the future.

The important think I realized is that I need to make sure that for every place I lived in the past, the people will return the mail and not just throw it out or something, I can't even speculate really. I can't believe you can get a judgment on you if someone else doesn't return the mail, something as crazy as that.

 

Thanks again

Yes, I once got a judgment against me in NYC because I had moved to a different borough and didn’t know about the suit.  I found out when my bank account was frozen.  
 

I honestly don’t know if there are steps you need to take to keep your exempt bank account from getting frozen. 

[WhoCares1000]

14 hours ago, BackFromTheDebt said:

Yes, I once got a judgment against me in NYC because I had moved to a different borough and didn’t know about the suit.  I found out when my bank account was frozen.  
 

I honestly don’t know if there are steps you need to take to keep your exempt bank account from getting frozen. 

Just let the bank know that the funds in the account are from SSDI only and make sure to keep less than 2 months of funds in the account. By doing that, you put the bank on notice that they might be liable if they freeze the fund in violation of federal law.