Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in New York

Re: Hold placed on bank account

You have been sued and someone got a judgment against you and then served a restraining notice upon your bank. As required by law your bank has frozen twice the amount of judgment.

If you can afford to hire a lawyer or get one through Legal Aid or some other community based law service organization, that is your best bet.

If you can�t and need to do itself, assuming you are in New York City. you would go to NY Civil Court in the County where you live (i.e., NY, Bronx, Kings, Queens, or Richmond County) and talk with the �pro se� clerk (clerk for people representing themselves) and get the form and instructions to do an Order to Show Cause to set aside judgment (there is also info. and forms about this on Court's website at http://www.nycourts.gov/courts/nyc/civil/osc.shtml). You will need to know the case number and case name, name of the judgment creditor and address of the attorneys for the judgment creditor for service of the papers. You can find all of this from the case file at the Court, or your bank will know the name of the attorneys who served the restraining notice and you can call them to learn this.

The following is not intended as legal advice for your situation and is general information for readers of these boards.

You can also check out the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on our website for answers to general questions about collection and bankruptcy matters at www.starrandstarr.com/faqs.htm.

We also help people with these type of matters in all 5 boroughs (and have helped a lot of people set aside judgments or file bankruptcy), but typically do not get involved in matters involving Civil Court judgments under $15,000 because it usually wont make economic sense for a client to hire us for smaller amounts.

Good luck,