Civil Recovery

phinneas55

New Member
In 2009, I was living in New York and was caught stealing a few things from (deleted). I hadn't left the store but I was taken by a man at the front door to the back office. There, the female manager gave me a lecture, I put the items back, and signed a 'no trespassing' agreement. There were no police, I was simply asked to avoid that particular store and if I was caught again legal action would be pursued. Now, 4 years late I received a series of letters demanding 500 dollars, immediately, and as I was relocating I never got the letters. It escalated to around 800, and when I failed to respond, NY got a court order to garnish 1400 from my bank account, essentially leaving me broke. Are they allowed to do that? I know they can send recovery letters, as an attempt to recover lost earnings, but can they actually get a court order and garnish my bank account (at 1400 dollars, when all merchandise was promptly put back), simply because I didn't receive the letters? Any advice would be appreciated, I do believe I need to hire a civil lawyer, but I'd like to know if I can get that money back.


I removed the name of the store partly for your protection & partly for protection of this forum. Betty3
 
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Yes they can the law allows this. Intentional or not you ignored (or seemed to) these legal request for Civil demand See here http://www.parentnook.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=161&t=3934 as I have been saying here and other sites for years these things can and do happen. If they were paid in full its over and really too late for you to act. You can Google your states Civil demand law to see if they followed the law but I suspect your dead in the water sorry. You might check to see if you were served or if they took the proper means to attempt to serve you.
 
Let add that hiring a Lawyer MIGHT cost you more than the lost $1400.00. In addition you clearly state here that you got letters when it was at $800.00 meaning (to me anyways) that you could have settled or at least contacted them at that point. I presume the $1400.00 was removed recently so when did you get the letters asking for $800.00 and when was $1400.00 taken? Why also are you getting letters now if sent to old address?
 
In 2009, I was living in New York and was caught stealing a few things from (deleted). I hadn't left the store but I was taken by a man at the front door to the back office. There, the female manager gave me a lecture, I put the items back, and signed a 'no trespassing' agreement. There were no police, I was simply asked to avoid that particular store and if I was caught again legal action would be pursued. Now, 4 years late I received a series of letters demanding 500 dollars, immediately, and as I was relocating I never got the letters. It escalated to around 800, and when I failed to respond, NY got a court order to garnish 1400 from my bank account, essentially leaving me broke. Are they allowed to do that? I know they can send recovery letters, as an attempt to recover lost earnings, but can they actually get a court order and garnish my bank account (at 1400 dollars, when all merchandise was promptly put back), simply because I didn't receive the letters? Any advice would be appreciated, I do believe I need to hire a civil lawyer, but I'd like to know if I can get that money back.


I removed the name of the store partly for your protection & partly for protection of this forum. Betty3

You live in Florida, (at least your IP address reveals that data) a very debtor friendly state, and allegedly a NY band of grifters attached your bank account, huh? Yet, you say you reside n NY.

Now, six years later, the grifters strike.

Something's not quite right about this. With your luck, you should buy a lottery ticket.
 
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Made some contacts I have in relation to this. We may see a lot more of this as time goes by NY especially. Seems retailers want their money and there are some new law firms joining the recovery service band wagon, after all its easy money. They are out to prove themselves so they are getting more aggressive. This means the likihood of law suits and garnishments will increase, how much so we will have to wait and see. After all this is the law. As I have stated numerous times in the past this CAN happen. Now we have met someone it has happened to. OP your only hope to regain these funds is if you can prove that you were not served properly and/or statute of limitations had expired. Its possible the judgement was in place a while ago and they just now discovered OP account to seeks funds.
 
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