Q: Can my bank account be frozen or garnished?

A: in my opinion, you're hitting the right legal bases.

Assuming that the pursuing creditor takes a judgment against you, that's only half the creditor's battle; collecting on the judgment is the other half.

You don't say where or whether your creditor has brought suit. Creditors, or some collectors, may threaten suit by letter or phone call, but about half the time that's a bluff, and usually depends upon the amount of the debt balance.

If the creditor takes a judgment in California, to issue execution against your credit union in Massachusetts, it must register its judgment in MA, and then issue, e.g., a garnishment writ there.

In my state, the process is that the creditor issues a garnishment writ to your financial institution, with interrogatories which the bank/credit union must answer (e.g., how much is held in your deposit accounts), and your financial institution is charged with the duty to notify you of the garnishment (which consumes more time before you get notice). Your bank will freeze/hold your account, plus any deposits made thereafter, until it receives an order from the court to pay the funds over to the garnishing creditor. You will have a limited window to file written objections to the garnishment (in PA, it's ten days, to present objections to the Sheriff's Department that served the writ). Your objections would include, among any other points, that all of the deposit funds are exempt under both federal and applicable state laws.

You should speak to counsel about these issues. The weak link in the chain is the delivery of notice of a garnishment to you so that you can file timely objections and your exemption claims.