Hiday & Ricke, P.A. Dodge Enterprises Attempt to garnish wages and have NO IDEA what the debt supposedly is!! Jacksonville, Florida
I just recieved a Writ of Garnishment from Hiday and Ricke P.A. in Jacksonville to collect $7,814.44 that they claim I owe them or Dodge Enterprises or Great Seneca Financial. I have never heard of any of these companies in my life and the papers give me 20 days to respond. I am tempted to ignore this but I don't want to take the chance that this is a real legal issue and I could be somehow held accountable legally.
No where on these papers is any information about what the alleged debt is or why they are collecting it and who these other companies are.
I am outraged that they are allowed to file such bogus claims and that I am now going to be humiliated when my employers get served this garbage.
This Hiday & Ricke are such scammers that they don't even have the guts to list their actual physical address with only a PO Box with "offices throughout Florida" listed on their documents.
They must really be scum to prey on people at this time of year.
I can barely make ends meet now, and along with a terminal illness, this stress is something that I can't handle right now.
Has anyone heard of these people or any of these other "companies" they have listed as their "assignee"?
ANY advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you all so much!
David
1 Updates & Rebuttals
John
Louisville,Kentucky,
U.S.A.
FYI
#2Consumer Comment
Tue, January 11, 2011
Did you ever receive a court summons via a sheriff or process server and if so, did you bother to show up in court? If you did not, then they won a default judgment against you and this is where the garnishment is coming from.
If you never received a court summons, then the following may apply:
Judgments cannot come out of the clear blue sky and debt collectors (nor banks) cannot assess judgments on their own. Only a court can do this.....A process has to be followed: Officially serving you a summons....this is usually done by a sheriff. A court date is established and on that date you face your creditor. If they win and a judgment is assessed...only THEN they can start to garnish wages.
Some debt collectors
"accidentally" serve you a summons to an old/incorrect address where they know that you won't be there.....so that you will be a "no show" on the court date because you weren't aware of it.....Then, an automatic default judgment is assessed against you.
It is illegal to deliberately serve someone at an incorrect address. This tactic is called a "sewer service" summons delivery. If you can document that you were improperly served, you may be able to get this judgment vacated.
Hire an attorney if you can afford one to assist you: Go to the clerk of the court of the court that granted the judgment. You want copies of all documents in the case against you. You want to examine the 'proof of service' documents to determine who/where service is claimed to have been performed. File a motion with the court to have the judgment vacated because the plaintiff improper served you
If you are sure that you were not served: Send a letter via certified with return receipt (Not regular mail) to the law office and state: I am requesting official validation of the alleged summons that was served to me, to include:
- The full name of the person who served the summons
- The full name of the person who signed for the summons
- A copy of delivery notice showing the signature
- The exact address that the summons was delivered to
- The date and time of delivery.
Receipt of this letter is being officially time stamped by the USPS. Refusal to validate will be documented.
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Contact your free legal aide society for more possible guidance.