Saline, MI asked in Contracts for Michigan

Q: How can a $5000 agreed judgement in 2000 (no more heard) become today $20,000 now 2019 and wages garnished without know

A third party brought a judgment (not sure when) Judgement was $5000 and my wages was just garnished for a 19 year old judgement for $20,000. We have not heard anything since we agreed on $5,000 until his wages where just now garnished from another 3rd party who bought the judgement. The real funny thing is we settled out of court and we have never been in front of the judge not one time and the judgment was extended in 2010 by a default (3 days) after a order to renew judgment was entered we received no notice of this and had no knowledge this has taken place we have lived in the same place for 25 years. HELP!

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1 Lawyer Answer
Brent T. Geers
Brent T. Geers
Answered
  • Grand Rapids, MI
  • Licensed in Michigan

A: With interest and costs, it's quite easy to get from $5,000 to $20,000 over nearly 20 years. Did you complete the terms of the settlement agreement? If so, that you should take that to the court with proof. Often times, a settlement agreement early on would say something like "defendant agrees to pay $3,000 in installments over 3 years; if defendant fails to make two payments, the entire $5,000 becomes due and owing immediately, and Defendant waives notice to entry of judgment in the full amount plus interest and costs". The fact, even if established, that you didn't get notice of the judgment renewal isn't going to help you. You had to have known about the underlying issue to have entered into a settlement agreement, and so not having notice that the original or subsequent creditor asked the court for more time to collect from you without giving you proper notice isn't really prejudicial to you.

Perhaps your best bet at this point is to file a motion for installment payments.

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