Florida law, and the law of most states, imposes a four year statute of limitations on a creditor’s allegations of fraudulent transfers under the fraudulent conveyance statute. The four year limitation does not apply when the creditor is the U.S. federal government or a government agency collecting court-ordered restitution. A…
Stopping a Bank Account Garnishment To stop a bank account garnishment, a judgment debtor should file a claim of exemption, gather all documentation in support of their exemption, and be prepared to prove entitlement to an exemption to the creditor’s attorney or to the judge. A creditor can serve a…
I have been asked many times over the years about the statute of limitations applicable to mortgages and credit card debt. The statute of limitations is a legal term that determines how loan may a bank due a debtor for missing a mortgage payment of defaulting on payments under a…
Clients sometimes ask me whether a judgment creditor can take personal property in their home such as furniture and jewelry. The answer is that a creditor can obtain what is known as a “break order” to authorize the sheriff to remove your personal property. The Florida homestead exemption does not…
Many years ago one of my clients transferred a substantial amount of money to an irrevocable charitable lead trust. Under the terms of the trust agreement the client receives a stream of income each year, and upon the client’s death all money in the charitable trust goes to a charity….
Some asset protection clients eventually file bankruptcy. A bankruptcy trustee’s job is to find and possible reverse the debtor’s prior asset transfers done in the course of asset protection planning. Some trustees have sought discovery of the debtor’s communication with the debtor’s attorneys who had advised and assisted the debtor…
One of my client’s recently escaped garnishment of his bank account by New York creditor because of a common law principal in New York known as the “separate entity rule.” The client lived in Virginia and banked at the Virginia branch of a regional banking institution. The bank also had…
A client has a new tech company with what he describes as a valuable copyright. His ex-partner sued him in Virginia federal court and obtained a large judgment which the ex-partner domesticated in Florida. The creditor registered a judgment lien with the Secretary of State. The client is concerned that…
Many people believe they can indefinitely delay a lawsuit against them by avoiding the process server who is trying to serve the complaint. They plan to live somewhere other than their primary residence, often in locations outside of Florida. Can you avoid a lawsuit by making it impossible for a…
Experienced collection attorneys may collect a judgment against a small business by garnishing the debtor business’s credit card receipts. This is typically done by serving a writ of garnishment upon the company’s merchant account where credit card receipts are collected. Assume that a creditor is unable to serve a writ…
