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| *Ostroff, Fair and Company>>>Renting & Real Estate |
I recently lost a lawsuit in Texas. I don't own any real estate or have anything in value. So whats next? |
I recently lost a lawsuit in Texas. I don't own any real estate or have anything in value. So whats next? I hope you like beans and cornbread. Own a bicycle? Better get one... The courts can put a lien against your future earnings. They will put a lien against you for the amount you owe. This will pretty much negate you from getting any credit in the future, because if someone gives you a loan for a car or a house, that can be seized to cover what you owe for the lien. Unless you have a lot of property, it can be difficult for someone with a judgment against you to collect it from you in the state of Texas. In olden days, people actually moved to Texas to avoid creditors. People in trouble with their creditors would write "GTT" on their cabin doors in chalk, for "Gone to Texas" and the creditors would often give up on collecting the money. The property you're allowed to keep from creditors in Texas is quite extensive. In Texas, our State Constitution prohibits wage garnishment (by Texas employers), which is the most effective way of collecting judgments against consumers in other states. Your wages can be garnished for child support, and new laws allow your paycheck to be garnished for unpaid student loans. Also, the IRS can levy on your paycheck for back taxes. But regular creditors, those with judgments for debts not based on any of these things, have to try to collect from other assets of yours besides your paycheck. Now, it's important to understand that once you deposit your paycheck into your bank, it's no longer considered wages. In fact, once it's in your bank, it's fair game and a judgment creditor can have a Writ of Garnishment issued from the Court, which freezes those funds. You have the right to a hearing, but normally the money ends up going to the creditor. If you have checks out on those funds, it's just too bad, the checks bounce. It's a mess. Therefore, it's not a good idea to have money in a bank account if you have a judgment against you. It could be garnished. One important thing that happens after someone gets a judgment against you is that they usually record an "abstract" or summary of the judgment in the county real property records. This creates a lien on any non-exempt real estate that you own in that county, and the recording of the judgment also gives public notice that you have a judgment against you. http://www.jthomasblack.com/legal-inform... Your wages will be garnished. They will take 25% of your after-tax (takehome) pay to be given to the plaintiff in your case as payments toward whatever judgment it was, and this will remain in effect until the judgment is paid in full. If it was specifically a child-support case, they can take 50% of it if you're supporting another new spouse or another child, or 60% if you're not. http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/w... |
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