Bank Levies and Wage Garnishments
Bank Levies and Wage Garnishments
Don't let debtors keep you from the money you're owed.
It is a tricky process but if you are owed money, you could possibly impose a bank levy or wage garnishment in order to obtain reimbursement.
A bank levy is when a debtor’s bank account is seized by the party they borrowed from. This is in order to satisfy a judgment. The lender does not even need the debtor’s bank account number. All that is needed is the bank or credit union the debtor keeps their money in. JPL Process Service can help obtain this information for you.
In case you are wondering, there is nothing illegal about doing this. The State of California allows creditors this option as a means for repayment.
You will need to fill out several legal documents to impose a bank levy. Once completed, file them with the court. After, submit to your local sheriff’s office. Afterwards, a process server will serve the Notice of Levy (Enforcement of Judgment) to the bank or credit union.
The other option is wage garnishment. The State of California also allows this and grants the creditor the option to garnish up to 25 percent of the debtor’s pay.
This process requires post judgment research and due diligence prior. Just like with a bank levy, you must fill out several legal documents.
Then, you will need to submit them to the court to be filed. Once that is completed, the filed documents are given to the sheriff’s office. (Please note that the sheriff’s office must be in the same county where the Earnings Withholding Order will be delivered.)
Among the required legal documents is the Application for Earning Withholding Order. This will need to be filled out with the debtor’s employer information. JPL Process Service can help you obtain that information using our latest technology.
After you have submitted the documents and application to the sheriff, a process server must serve the debtor’s employer with the Earnings Withholding Order. The employer has 30 days to comply.
Of course, there are situations that might prevent a bank levy or wage garnishment.
- If the debtor qualifies for certain exemptions or falls under the guidelines for a low income earner.
- If the debtor already has a bank levy from another company.
- If the debtor is in the process of filing bankruptcy.
- If the debtor already has their wages garnished for other reasons (child support or to pay another debt).
These are a few reasons why the creditor may not be able to proceed with either option.
Obtaining payment for a past due debt is a sticky situation to be in and can be complicated. Once you have decided to go through with either a bank levy or wage garnishment, please let us assist you with the process serving. Why let the sheriff office serve your documents when using a private process server is better?
JPL Process Service has the technology to help you obtain the information you need. We are also a professional and timely process serving company that will make sure your documents arrive to the debtor’s bank or employer quickly.
We understand the urgency in matters like these. We serve the Orange County and Los Angeles County area, have contacts in several courts and sheriff offices, and offer process servers with extensive training. Let JPL Process Service help you get back what is rightfully yours.
Collection agencies aren’t the only ones who could benefit from a process service. Who else needs a process server? You and you may not even know it.
What is the National Association of Professional Process Servers (NAPPS)?
What is the National Association of Professional Process Servers (NAPPS)?
Maybe when you think of a process server, you don’t think it is a serious job. Maybe it appears to be a simple one. Get legal documents from client, deliver to opposing party, get confirmation, done.
But as stated before, if you choose a company that does not take this job seriously, things can go wrong.
The result? Your case is delayed. The opposing party and/or supporting evidence you needed them to bring are not there because they never received the legal documents stating to do so.
There are over 200,000 process servers in Orange County alone. Los Angeles County has nearly twice as many process servers. (Type “process servers in Los Angeles” and you receive over 910,000 search results!)
If the numbers are so high for just two counties in Southern California, imagine the total number of process servers in the United States! So what can help insure that all guidelines are being followed and give peace of mind to those needing process services?
The National Association of Professional Process Servers can!
As stated on their website, “NAPPS was founded in 1982 by a group of concerned business owners. This group met in Las Vegas in October of 1982 to form a nationwide organization to fight proposed federal legislation adverse to the process serving industry.”
NAPPS does not regulate process servers but rather provides those in the industry an idea of Best Practices and High Standards to follow while performing their duties.
They help answer questions and inform members of current federal laws regarding process serving. They have committees that focus on specific areas of the industry in order to give the best advice. They are the producers of the only national publication devoted to news about the process service industry. Basically, they provide their members with the help they need to be the best they can be.
NAPPS also has associations within a few states. These provide business in those areas a directory to find quality process servers.
Still need help knowing how to find the best process server for your needs?
Here are 5 ways a process server can be better. That article also lists a few good questions to ask yourself when choosing a process server.
Or you can simply try JPL Process Service.
- We give our process servers extensive training
- We possess the latest technology
- We are professional through and through
- We care about the industry (and are longtime members of NAPPS)
- We want to give our customers the peace of mind that they not only need but deserve!
- We serve Orange County, Los Angeles County and other Southern California Counties
- We never add any hidden fees
- We guarantee your satisfaction
You may also qualify for $25 off your first process service order instantly. Give us a call at (866) 754-0520 for more details.
Famous Process Servers
Process Servers in Film
Is this what you think of process servers? Courtesy Columbia Pictures.
People often think that process serving is either a scary job or a pain of a job. You can thank Hollywood for that.
Process serving often gets a bad rap because the job gives screenwriters a free range to work with.
Why?
A process server comes in contact with different people every day, often having to travel all over town to do so. This gives screenwriters free range to create mishaps and hilarious scenarios for their character (the process server) to face.
The most recent example of this is the 2008 American film Pineapple Express.
Seth Rogan plays Dale Denton, a 25-year-old process server. Dale is first shown in the beginning of the movie delivering documents to several different people. He wears disguises to trick those he must serve into identifying themselves so he may hand them over their legal documents.
One of his jobs is to deliver a subpoena to a drug lord and while doing so, he witnesses a murder. The movie is hilarious as Dale runs from danger while trying to figure out what is really going on, who to trust, and what to do to get himself out of the mess he unknowingly walked into.
Another movie that comes to mind is Serving Sara, a 2002 romantic comedy starring Matthew Perry and Elizabeth Hurley.
Perry plays Joe, a process server who is often ridiculed by his boss for serving his targets late. (It is later revealed that he is being sabotaged on all his process serving assignments.) One of his assignments is to serve Sara Moore (Hurley), a British socialite, divorce papers.
After a few mishaps, Joe and Sara are thrown together. Sara finds out from Joe that she will gain nothing in the divorce since her husband filled out the divorce papers according to Texas law. She decides to bribe Joe into destroying her paperwork and serving her husband divorce papers in the state of New York, where the law will grant her half of everything. Joe agrees and hilarity follows as the two set off to get Sara “what she deserves.”
Even Lucille Ball played a process server in film – TWICE!
In Season 2, Episode 27 of The Lucy Show (1964), Lucy takes a job as a process server at an attorney’s office. Her first task is to serve a subpoena to Mr. Mooney. She goes from one mishap to another, forcing her to trail Mr. Mooney all over town. She eventually ends up stowing away on a cruise ship set for a 28 day trip!
She plays a process server again in 1968 in the show Here’s Lucy. Here, the task of delivering a summons to an unfriendly lady is not so simple but why would it be? She’s Lucy!
Don’t worry though; these farfetched adventures do not apply to the reality process servers face. Not to say they won’t face some difficult situations but JPL’s registered and bonded process servers will follow through on their assignments, are trained to know the most efficient means to fulfill their legal duties and to avoid crazy situations like the Hollywood scenarios above.
So next time you’re looking for a licensed, bonded and insured legal process server in California, give JPL Process Service a call at (866) 754-0520.
For more information, you can also check us out on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn or this list of frequently asked questions.
