Can Debt Collectors Garnish Your Bank Accounts or Wages? Yes. Read on to find out how to protect your rights.
Can Debt Collectors Garnish Your Bank Accounts or Wages? What Should You Do about it?
The short answer is yes – they can try, anyway.
Here are some things you need to know about garnishment.
If you have assets, and this includes either a job or money in the bank, they can be garnished if they have a judgment against you. In other words, once a debt collector has a judgment against you everything you have or may get is at risk. That’s why it’s so important to defend yourself at every step of the way.
The Surprise that Isn’t a Surprise
Lawsuits are divided into two main parts. The first part, which is what everyone thinks about in connection with “being sued,” is a determination of liability and damages (the judgment).
In plain English, a lawsuit is to decide whether you owe anything and how much. In debt cases, that’s usually determined by either a default (failing to show up to court in the first place) or a “give-up settlement” (where you show up to agree to anything the debt collector wants, which often includes a “consent judgment”).
In either case, the judgment just says you owe x-amount of dollars, or nothing if you succeed in fighting the case.
In most cases, judgments are not “self-enforcing.” That means that after the debt collector gets a judgment that you owe some money, it must still either persuade you to give it to them or find it and take it away from you. This is called “enforcing a judgment.” To do that, the debt collector tries to find your assets and then goes to the court’s garnishment office and starts garnishment proceedings.
The garnishment office does NOT tell you they’re at work, and neither does the debt collector. They want you to forget about the case and get comfortable. If you move or hide your assets, their job gets much, much tougher. (A word to the wise.) And if they warn you they are at work, you’re more likely to move or hide the assets, right?
Incredibly, people are quite often shocked when the debt collector starts seizing assets, freezing bank accounts, or garnishing assets.
They are at Work
Let this be your warning. If the debt collector has a judgment against you, THEY ARE AT WORK EVEN IF YOU AREN’T HEARING THEM. They still want your money, and they’ve taken a big and somewhat expensive first step by suing you. Why would they stop? You may forget about it, but they won’t.
The Way Garnishment Happens
You are always the last to know when collection activity happens. This way your funds are frozen before you can take any action such as withdrawing all your funds.
Banks
The debt collector serves a notice of garnishment on the bank, and as of the time the bank receives it, your account will be frozen. Their notifying the bank and not you is perfectly legal.
You typically receive the notice (including your rights) well after your funds have been frozen. In most states, the garnishment does not only freeze funds already in your account at the time of service on the financial institution, but can get money you put in afterwards for a period of time.
During the time the garnishment is in effect, the financial institution will not honor checks or other orders for the payment of money drawn against your account if it would leave a balance under the amount stated on the garnishment. For most people, this means that all your checks will bounce or be returned for NSF (non-sufficient funds) and you will be charged a hefty fee by both the bank and, possibly, by the person who tried to cash the check.
When the amount being garnished is paid, the freeze on your account must be terminated, but since many people do not have nearly enough money in their accounts to offset any significant judgment, this is not of practical significance. It is a fact, though, and if you manage to pay off the debt, plus their massive fees of course, they have to give you what’s called a “satisfaction of judgment” that ends all collection efforts.
If they catch you by surprise, you probably have big trouble. Not only is your money gone, but checks (and automatic drafts, for example) are bouncing right and left – and there are other laws that punish you for that. Therefore, if you let them get a judgment and garnish your bank, you could have a lot of trouble all the sudden. Don’t underestimate how terrible this can be.
Jobs
Wages can also be garnished, and, again, your first notice that you are being garnished is likely to be when you receive a check that is less than you thought it would be.
Federal law limits the maximum amount that can be garnished by one or more garnishment orders to 25 percent of your disposable earnings for that week, or the amount by which your disposable earnings for that week exceed thirty times the Federal minimum hourly wage, whichever is less.
In practical terms, that means (as of this writing) that if you make $154.50 or more per week your wages will be reduced by about 25%. Since most people being sued for debt are already close to the line, a 25% reduction in their paychecks can be simply devastating. And remember, you won’t find out about it until the money you expected is not there.
What can you do about all this?
Don’t Let them Get a Judgment
All of the above means that you should work HARD to avoid letting the debt collector get a judgment. If they do manage to get one, you should EXPECT NOT ONE SHRED OF MERCY. They will take every penny they can with no concern at all for the consequences to you or your family.
You Have Some Rights if they Garnish
There are some limits to what they can take from your bank account even if they have a judgment. These are determined by state law, so we don’t discuss them here. If you get a notice of garnishment, what physically happens is that the bank “holds” your money for some period of time, usually 30 days. During that time you can assert your rights and maybe make them give you some of it back. Normally the notice of garnishment tells you where to find your state law rights, but if it doesn’t, just google the question “what are my rights against garnishment in X state” to get you started. Those rights can save you a lot of grief.
Fight the Law Suit – Don’t let them Garnish your Money
Sometimes people think things are so hopeless that it isn’t worth it to try to keep them from getting a judgment. You have nothing now for them to garnish, and you don’t expect ever to have enough for them to garnish. That’s called being “judgment proof.” Or they think that no matter what they do, they’ll lose if they try to defend themselves.
Don’t go there. Things could get better for you in any number of ways, from your job suddenly turning better, to people you don’t know dying or giving you money, or you getting some sort of great idea, or… just anything. The world is full of possibilities, and good things could happen. They’re much more likely to happen if you keep looking for them, too.
As for your chances, nothing is guaranteed, and in my opinion the deck is, in fact, stacked against you. However, you still have a very good chance of winning most of the time if you know what you’re doing. Debt collectors are not built to fight long law suits – they’re designed to shake the tree and collect whatever falls most easily. If you fight, they’ll often eventually quit, and even if they don’t you have a good chance of winning. And of course that’s why we’re here. You should fight the lawsuit whether you have money or not.
Don’t Ignore the Possibility of Losing Even if you Defend
Of course, if you’re being sued there’s always a chance you could lose. ALWAYS A CHANCE.
That means that you need to keep personal information about jobs and assets out of the hands of the debt collectors whenever possible.
If you have ever written a check to the company who is the alleged original creditor, you must assume that the debt collector has your banking information. You might want to change banks.
Remember that garnishments are served on people (including corporations and banks), not accounts, so it doesn’t do any good to cancel your account and get a new one in the same bank. But changing banks will go a long way to keep you from finding out, one day, that your bank account has been emptied and your checks are now bouncing.
For a lot of people it’s harder to change jobs. I’m just saying that if you do, it will be harder for the debt collector to garnish your wages. If they have any reason to know where your present job is, you should expect them to come for it.
Your Legal Leg Up
We are dedicated to helping people defend themselves from debt lawsuits without having to hire a lawyer. Lawsuits have a number of points where specific action is called or, and we have products to help you deal with most of these situations. Your best deal is by far a membership which gets you all our downloadable products for free and also invites you to our teleconferences. Teleconferences are designed to answer, in real time, questions you ask, to discuss strategies and tactics. They help you know what the other side is up to and potential actions you can take to stop them.
In addition to that, our website is a resource for all. Many of the articles and materials are reserved for members, but many others are available to everyone. Every page has a site search button in both the header and footer. Put in a key word – a word you think relates to what you’re looking for – and enter. You will get a page of results.
What you’ll receive if you sign up is a series of several videos and articles spread out over several days, and then you will occasionally hear from us as we add information to the site. We don’t always announce that information, though.
What you will not receive is any marketing from other people – or much from us, either. Our goal is to make the site more useful to members and visitors, not to swamp anyone with sales materials. The information we send will have links to information or products that we think may be helpful.
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If you are being sued by a debt collector, the first step in defending yourself is knowing who is suing you and what you are being sued for. You’ll want to know what facts the plaintiff thinks it can and needs to prove, and you’ll want to look for initial weaknesses in the case. In all of these things, you will need to understand how to read the petition and understand what it is doing.
Below, you will find a sample petition. The petition (also called “complaint” in some jurisdictions – the terms refer to the same thing) is in black, and my comments about what the petition is doing is in red ink. You will see that every part of the petition has its purpose and function.
For purposes of this article, I will refer only to a few parts of the case, as these areas are often discussed in the teleconference calls and people have shown that they do not understand them. But if you look at the annotated sample petition, you will see much more. Knowing what things are called is an important part of the process of understanding what they are and do and an important first step in defending your rights.
Caption
The caption of the case is the part where it says “Debt Collector vs You” and also the name of the court and jurisdiction. Although it has come up, very rarely, that the named plaintiff may not, actually, be the plaintiff (see our article and video on assignment in the glossary), normally the person named as plaintiff is the plaintiff.
In plain English, that means that if First National Bank is named as plaintiff, that’s the person suing you and not a debt buyer. If you have any reason to doubt that, you will want to use the discovery process to pry the truth loose.
And you are the defendant along with anyone else named as defendant in the caption.
The jurisdiction is also important, as this will either tell you that the court has dollar limits to its jurisdiction or not. At a minimum, you can use this part of the caption to find out whether the court does, indeed, have such limits. In general, if it does, the lower the limits, the less likely the court is to follow the rules of evidence rigorously. We usually want the highest court possible because it is critical to debt defense that the rules should be followed.
Title Heading of Suit
The title headings in a lawsuit are not formally treated as part of the lawsuit but are, instead, guidance. But what you need to know is that if you have different “counts” of the lawsuit there will be either more than one set of facts involved or, much more likely, more than one legal theory involved. If Count One is breach of contract, and Count Two is for Account Stated, you know you are being sued under two laws. In order to win your case, you will have to win on every count.
If you have no heading, or no heading that refers to counts, you are being sued based on one law (almost certainly), although it isn’t always perfectly clear from the petition what that is.
Wherefore Clause
This is the part of the suit that says, “wherefore, plaintiff requests…” In other words, it’s the part of the lawsuit that says what the plaintiff wants. If you want to know how much they’re suing you for, this is the place to look.
The wherefore clause is usually the last paragraph of a count. If your suit has more than one count, it will have more than one wherefore clause, one at the end of each count. If it does not have more than one count, it will probably be the last paragraph of the petition.
You need to know what the debt collector is suing you for. This is where you find that.
Sample Petition for Money Owed
IN THE ASSOCIATE CIRCUIT COURT “Associate” means limited jurisdiction
OF THE COUNTY OF XXXXX County or city jurisdiction
STATE OF XXXX
DEBT COLLECTOR COMPANY, LLC, This is the “Caption,” This name is the
ASSIGNEE OF CC COMPANY (Mastercard), plaintiff [the lawyer signing is not
Plaintiff, plaintiff, nor is Mastercard]
vs.
JOHN Q. PUBLIC,
Defendant.
COUNT ONE – SUIT ON MONEY OWED [Title. “Count One” indicates this claim has more than one legal basis. Lots of suits are brought on only one basis and don’t have “Count __” in them]
Comes Now Plaintiff and for its cause of action against the Defendant states as follows: [Intro, sometimes much longer]
Plaintiff is a limited liability company duly organized and existing under law and is the lawful assignee of this debt. [Paragraph allegations – you have to respond to each paragraph – this one identifies the plaintiff and alleges it was assigned the debt.]
That defendant is a resident of xx county, state of x. [paragraph establishing court’s jurisdiction over defendant, so important – don’t admit if wrong]
That defendant is in default under the terms of the documentation attached hereto, incorporated herein and marked Plaintiff’s Exhibits A and B in the amount of $1,332.14. [This is ‘breach of contract” language, often more involved than this, including claims of issuing cards or credit, etc.]
That plaintiff has performed all conditions on its part required to be performed. [Establishing right to remedy – plaintiff did not breach contract]
That demand for payment has been made and payment refused. [Formality, sometimes but not usually required, usually included though]
Wherefore, plaintiff prays judgment against defendant in the principal amount of $1,332.14 together with interest of 39% per annum from December 7, 2005, and for costs and attorneys fees herein. [the “Wherefore clause.” Says what the plaintiff wants. Usually if it does not say “attorney’s fees,” they won’t be able to get them if they win]
COUNT TWO – ACCOUNT STATED [second claim, this one under law of account stated]
Plaintiff realleges and incorporates paragraphs 1-5 of this petition as if fully stated herein. [“reincorporation clause” – standard. You will simply reallege your previous responses in the same way]
Plaintiff had a regular billing arrangement with Defendant whereby each month Plaintiff would send Defendant an accounting of money due and owing either as a result of new charges made by Defendant or for charges based upon an existing balance. [necessary to show that bills, or “accounting,” were a regular thing, expected by defendant]
Plaintiff sent Defendant a bill showing a charge of $1,332.14 due immediately on X date.[the “new contract,” because it was actually or “impliedly accepted”]
Defendant did not dispute this bill showing a balance of $1,332.14 and accordingly accepted it. [Your supposed agreement]
Defendant did not pay the amount due and is thereby in violation of the law. [The “breach” of the contract created by accepting the accounting – note that new agreement does not have any terms other than the money allegedly owed]
Wherefore, plaintiff prays judgment against defendant in the amount of $1,332.14 together with costs of this action and such other relief as this court deems appropriate under the law. [The “wherefore clause” for the account stated – note that it should not include attorney’s fees or (probably) interest]
Collection Law Firm [law firm’s signature, usually illegible. Both the named lawyer and the firm are representing plaintiff (but are NOT plaintiff) and would be on the hook for possible violations of FDCPA]
______________________
Collection lawyer,
Law Firm
Address
[There is usually some sort of affidavit to the effect that the defendant is not in active military service – if you are not, this is purely a formality. If you are in active military service, special rules apply to your case]
http://yourlegallegup.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/YLLU_Main_Logo.png00Ken Giberthttp://yourlegallegup.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/YLLU_Main_Logo.pngKen Gibert2019-05-03 20:45:262019-11-22 21:45:07Understanding the Petition in a Debt Lawsuit
There’s a myth in America that people can move up in life more here than anywhere else. It is also widely believed that because of this social mobility there isn’t a conflict between the classes.
In recent times, those myths are coming a little bit under fire. Partly we can thank the Democratic Socialists for this – AOC has done a lot to highlight the vast differences in income between the poor and the rich, and she, and other politicians, are beginning to suggest various things that might be done to address those differences. This, of course, has alarmed the right wing and the wealthy, and they are talking a lot about class warfare, too, but the only thing they’re worried about, of course, is the possibility that they will be targeted for special taxation.
We take a different view and sometimes discuss what we believe are the true causes of the wealth inequality in America and what should be done about it. Our point in the video below, however, is just that there has been a class war going on for a long time – and it’s being waged by the rich against the poor.
And the poor are losing big time.
Two of the “trenches” of the current class war are in debt litigation and foreclosure law. Over the past few years, foreclosure has been a little less frequent, but we believe it will soon accelerate. Debt litigation has not slowed down as far as we can tell. The supposed boom in employment has not led to higher wages in real terms or in greater opportunities for the working classes – they’re falling further behind.
Class Warfare in America
The Banks have you in their sights – Fight Back!
__________________________
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Pennsylvania has some very favorable, specific rules on what a debt collector must plead in order to bring a claim on a debt, and a procedure called “preliminary objections” that brings up these issues.
Despite the law imposing these requirements, the debt collectors ignore them, and chances are good that if you’re being sued in PA, they ignored them for you. That means that you can probably get the case kicked out by filing the appropriate Preliminary Objections. For more on this issue, see our materials related to the Pennsylvania Silver Bullet Pack below.
In addition to the pleading requirements, PA also has some very favorable law on the Account Stated claim that debt collectors like to use so often. An account stated claim, in general, requires that the plaintiff plead and prove that a normal billing relationship existed between the parties, that the plaintiff sent a bill (“accounting”) to which the defendant essentially agreed but did not pay. In most states, this “essential agreement” can be implied from almost nothing. In Pennsylvania, on the other hand, some real evidence of agreement needs to be produced. Of course, the debt collectors almost never have such evidence.
Pennsylvania Silver Bullet Pack – a great product that will stop most debt collectors – and a lot of other bad guys too – in Pennsylvania.
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This will be a long-term project, as we begin to write more articles that will address issues that arise in specific states. We will eventually have member-only material catalogued here for greater convenience.
California Bill of Particulars Pack – Californians have a tool, halfway between pleadings and discovery, that can force debt collectors to provide all the information you need to defend yourself from most of their claims. The bill of particulars will often make them drop all or part of their case – or to give you what you need to hammer them in court.
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This will eventually be an article on small claims courts in Oklahoma.
Small claims courts are a frequent bane to debt defendants because they apply loose rules (of evidence and civil procedure) designed for pro se, unsophisticated parties disputing small amounts of money. Debt collectors, however, have discovered that these lax rules can make it easier for them to get even more default judgments and to win cases on obviously insufficient evidence. Oklahoma put a stop to that by enacting rules that forbid debt collectors from bringing their claims in small claims courts.
Of course this hasn’t stopped them.
Here is the rule: http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=438809
Here’s an article. There will be more: https://www.okbar.org/freelegalinfo/smallclaims/
http://yourlegallegup.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/YLLU_Main_Logo.png00Ken Giberthttp://yourlegallegup.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/YLLU_Main_Logo.pngKen Gibert2019-04-26 18:49:402019-04-26 18:49:40Oklahoma Law on Debt Collection
At its best, debt collection is a hard business. They’re trying to force people who are already making tough choices to make different choices. To make a person give up food or insurance to pay a bill for something that’s already come and gone is hard to do. And even when the choice isn’t quite that stark, there’s always the challenge of making someone give up what they want NOW for what they used to want THEN.
On the other hand, most people do want to pay their bills, and they feel guilty and embarrassed when they don’t. The debt collectors know and use those facts regularly. You might consider efforts to trigger those feelings “dirty tricks,” but we won’t discuss them other than in certain extreme ways the debt collectors play their cards.
Debtors
People who owe money also usually feel, and are, vulnerable to various bad things, and many of the dirtiest tricks use this fact against them. From a slightly different angle, one of the things that get people into debt trouble in the first place is hope or optimism – they overestimate what they can or will do or they look for an easy way out. This can make them easy suckers for scams, from get-rich-quick scams to get-out-of-debt scams. But what concerns us most for purposes of this article is that it causes them to overestimate what they can pay or for how long they can do it. Thus there’s a tendency for people to make agreements they can’t keep.
In this article, we’ll discuss a few of the tricks the debt collectors play to use the weaknesses of people in debt against them so that you can recognize and prepare for them. We also have a report that you can get for free that has many more of the worst of the tricks.
I have found that a lot of people come to us after doing some things that hurt their rights. Part of our mission is to protect some of those rights before they get lost or damaged. We want to catch people earlier in the debt cycle, in other words. If you give the wrong person money, it’s almost impossible to get it back.
A Few Preliminary Words
There are a few things I will say before getting into the scams and tricks. First, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) makes almost all of the tricks we discuss here illegal. But some of them are not, as we will discuss.
The FDCPA generally requires fair-dealing and honesty of the debt collectors, and it makes deception and “misleading” behaviors illegal. It also gives them certain affirmative requirements. But it applies only to “debt collectors” as that term is defined, and there is currently a lot of uncertainty about exactly what the term means and just who is a debt collector even among legitimate operators, and there are a lot of crooks out there, too.
What there is really no doubt about at all is that debt collectors, whether they are within the definition of the FDCPA or not, will do almost anything to get your money. You know that. We can only list and describe a relatively few of their tricks, but you need to develop the habit of extreme caution and skepticism towards anybody who’s trying to get you to give them some money. You need PROOF of every aspect of what they’re saying, because, as we all know, paying the wrong person a bill we really owe doesn’t do any good at all – it just means we’re going to double-pay.
No legitimate debt collector will require you to act immediately the first time you hear from them. Don’t let them hurry you into lowering your standards of proof – that’s the key to all of their other tricks.
A Few of Their Tricks
The tricks here are only a few of what they have come up with, and they will constantly be coming up with more. These are merely examples. The tricks don’t all have formal names, but I have given them names to make them easier to remember.
Asking for Post-dated Checks
Sometimes a debt collector will urge you to send a post-dated check. That is, a check with a date on it that’s different than the actual date. You think the money will be there in a week, so you write the check for next week.
Debt collectors love to get you to do this. Why?
There are some legitimate reasons, and this isn’t always a scam or dirty trick. It is a fact that people get busy, have second thoughts, or simply change their minds – especially when it comes to paying money for something that doesn’t bring them pleasure. A debt collector has a legitimate interest, assuming the debt is valid and the collector is honest (which you should almost never do), in getting your money before any of that happens. He or she has talked you into doing something, and he doesn’t want it to come undone as soon as you hang up. A post-dated check is a good way to make your intention stick.
The problem is that you cannot trust the debt collector, yourself, or the world around you with this.
You can’t trust the debt collector because most debt collectors will say anything that comes to mind to get you to do what they want. They are under intense pressure to perform, and to perform quickly. Therefore, chances are good that the debt collector will not remember – and not even try to remember – that your check is post-dated check. That will be forgotten before you hang up.
So even if by chance your check goes to the debt collector who called you, she will put the check in the pile to go to the bank immediately. And it isn’t likely the person who called you will see the check – it will automatically go out for payment when it arrives in the office.
And you can’t even trust yourself on this. If you were just trying to get the debt collector to go away, or if you made a slight miscalculation, or if something unforeseen happens – as so often happens – you will be in trouble.
Attempt to Collect from Relatives of the Dead
With few exceptions, a parent or spouse’s debts do NOT transfer to anyone else. A deceased’s debts are claims against the decedent’s estate. That means, if there’s a will, that any claimants will have to make a claim against the estate in probate. If for some reason that doesn’t happen, then in some situations the “residuary” beneficiary of the will might be liable.
If the will says, “I leave $100 to Mary and the rest to John,” John is the residuary beneficiary, and John might under some circumstances be liable for a debt. But of course it almost never happens because the creditor would have to prove a variety of things that aren’t easy to prove. Most debt collectors want nothing to do with that. They’d rather try to get you to pay.
All you need to know is that if a debt collector is asking you to pay someone else’s bills it’s probably a scam.
Debt collectors know most people do not know the law and have never thought they might owe someone else’s bills. People who are grieving are less likely to question or oppose someone who asserts that they owe something. In other words, this scam requires catching you at a vulnerable time and taking advantage of it.
The FBI’s After You
In this scam, someone calls you up “from Washington” (or wherever) to let you know you’ve been implicated in some vague crime or misdeed. They’ve tried this one on me a couple of times, as a matter of fact, only the person was supposedly calling from the Social Security Administration to tell me my account had been “frozen” because someone was using the number to launder money.
The agent spoke fast and had a number to call for verification, but things were close to a boiling point. I was supposed to act quickly or expect the FBI to show up within the next day, or possibly hours. Of course the first thing I had to do was verify a few numbers for them…
This is obviously a criminal scam, with only the barest pretense at being debt collection when there is one – sometimes the threat is that agents are on the way to pick you up for non-payment of some debt, or whatever. The critical features are the urgency, the authority, and the threat.
The people doing this one are clearly not legitimate debt collectors, they’re criminals, but it may show up as a debt collection, and chances are good you’ve been targeted because of some perceived vulnerability. Tell these guys to take a hike.
There’s more in the report
You will find many more examples of debt collector dirty tricks in our free Bestiary of Debt Collector Dirty Tricks. You can find that by clicking here: https://yourlegallegup.com/blog/debt-collector-dirty-tricks/.
Many debt defendants love the idea of affirmative defenses – they just sound stronger, don’t they? But in the law, they are specific things, and they are not better than general defenses. They’re just different. If you have an affirmative defense, that’s fine, and you probably wouldn’t want to ignore it. But general defenses are really the “bread and butter” of defense.
So what are these two types of defense?
General Defense or Denial
A general defense is one of two things. It CAN mean a general denial of every allegation in the petition. You’re saying, “prove it” to everything. Since the debt collector has the burden of proof, I would suggest you consider this if it is available to you. It’s easy, fast, and comprehensive. But of course your next move is on to discovery and the rest of defense.
Generically, a “general defense” is one where you deny an allegation. So, above, you could file a “general defense” which denies all paragraphs (if your jurisdiction allows this). Or normally you would simply deny all or most of the paragraphs of the plaintiff’s petition. Every denial is a “general defense” that leaves the burden of proof on the plaintiff.
Affirmative Defenses
Affirmative defenses are something else. They amount to a statement that, “even if what the plaintiff is true, I don’t owe because …”
One example of this might be a settlement – suppose you entered an agreement to pay and did pay the other side, but they sue you anyway. If so, your general denial will be to deny the allegations of the petition, but then you’ll add an affirmative defense: On x day, the parties entered into settlement discussions and formed an agreement. Defendant fully performed this agreement on y day, paying z dollars for a “complete settlement of all claims.” See, attached (a copy of the agreement).
Thus, the facts that you have alleged amount to a complete defense to the action (known as “accord and satisfaction). And note that the facts are pleaded with “particularity” (in detail), and the defendant has the burden of proof of these things.
Other examples of affirmative defenses include collateral estoppel, res judicata, unclean hands, statute of limitations, and laches. There could be others. In each case the defendant would bear the burden of pleading the facts constituting the defense and proving them at trial. Since a general denial leaves the burden of proof on the plaintiff, they’re usually more important.
http://yourlegallegup.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/YLLU_Main_Logo.png00Ken Giberthttp://yourlegallegup.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/YLLU_Main_Logo.pngKen Gibert2019-03-23 20:20:532019-03-23 20:20:53A Question of Burden – General versus Affirmative Defenses
Can Debt Collectors Garnish Wages or Bank Accounts?
Can Debt Collectors Garnish Your Bank Accounts or Wages? Yes. Read on to find out how to protect your rights.
Can Debt Collectors Garnish Your Bank Accounts or Wages? What Should You Do about it?
The short answer is yes – they can try, anyway.
Here are some things you need to know about garnishment.
If you have assets, and this includes either a job or money in the bank, they can be garnished if they have a judgment against you. In other words, once a debt collector has a judgment against you everything you have or may get is at risk. That’s why it’s so important to defend yourself at every step of the way.
The Surprise that Isn’t a Surprise
Lawsuits are divided into two main parts. The first part, which is what everyone thinks about in connection with “being sued,” is a determination of liability and damages (the judgment).
In plain English, a lawsuit is to decide whether you owe anything and how much. In debt cases, that’s usually determined by either a default (failing to show up to court in the first place) or a “give-up settlement” (where you show up to agree to anything the debt collector wants, which often includes a “consent judgment”).
In either case, the judgment just says you owe x-amount of dollars, or nothing if you succeed in fighting the case.
In most cases, judgments are not “self-enforcing.” That means that after the debt collector gets a judgment that you owe some money, it must still either persuade you to give it to them or find it and take it away from you. This is called “enforcing a judgment.” To do that, the debt collector tries to find your assets and then goes to the court’s garnishment office and starts garnishment proceedings.
The garnishment office does NOT tell you they’re at work, and neither does the debt collector. They want you to forget about the case and get comfortable. If you move or hide your assets, their job gets much, much tougher. (A word to the wise.) And if they warn you they are at work, you’re more likely to move or hide the assets, right?
Incredibly, people are quite often shocked when the debt collector starts seizing assets, freezing bank accounts, or garnishing assets.
They are at Work
Let this be your warning. If the debt collector has a judgment against you, THEY ARE AT WORK EVEN IF YOU AREN’T HEARING THEM. They still want your money, and they’ve taken a big and somewhat expensive first step by suing you. Why would they stop? You may forget about it, but they won’t.
The Way Garnishment Happens
You are always the last to know when collection activity happens. This way your funds are frozen before you can take any action such as withdrawing all your funds.
Banks
The debt collector serves a notice of garnishment on the bank, and as of the time the bank receives it, your account will be frozen. Their notifying the bank and not you is perfectly legal.
You typically receive the notice (including your rights) well after your funds have been frozen. In most states, the garnishment does not only freeze funds already in your account at the time of service on the financial institution, but can get money you put in afterwards for a period of time.
During the time the garnishment is in effect, the financial institution will not honor checks or other orders for the payment of money drawn against your account if it would leave a balance under the amount stated on the garnishment. For most people, this means that all your checks will bounce or be returned for NSF (non-sufficient funds) and you will be charged a hefty fee by both the bank and, possibly, by the person who tried to cash the check.
When the amount being garnished is paid, the freeze on your account must be terminated, but since many people do not have nearly enough money in their accounts to offset any significant judgment, this is not of practical significance. It is a fact, though, and if you manage to pay off the debt, plus their massive fees of course, they have to give you what’s called a “satisfaction of judgment” that ends all collection efforts.
If they catch you by surprise, you probably have big trouble. Not only is your money gone, but checks (and automatic drafts, for example) are bouncing right and left – and there are other laws that punish you for that. Therefore, if you let them get a judgment and garnish your bank, you could have a lot of trouble all the sudden. Don’t underestimate how terrible this can be.
Jobs
Wages can also be garnished, and, again, your first notice that you are being garnished is likely to be when you receive a check that is less than you thought it would be.
Federal law limits the maximum amount that can be garnished by one or more garnishment orders to 25 percent of your disposable earnings for that week, or the amount by which your disposable earnings for that week exceed thirty times the Federal minimum hourly wage, whichever is less.
In practical terms, that means (as of this writing) that if you make $154.50 or more per week your wages will be reduced by about 25%. Since most people being sued for debt are already close to the line, a 25% reduction in their paychecks can be simply devastating. And remember, you won’t find out about it until the money you expected is not there.
What can you do about all this?
Don’t Let them Get a Judgment
All of the above means that you should work HARD to avoid letting the debt collector get a judgment. If they do manage to get one, you should EXPECT NOT ONE SHRED OF MERCY. They will take every penny they can with no concern at all for the consequences to you or your family.
You Have Some Rights if they Garnish
There are some limits to what they can take from your bank account even if they have a judgment. These are determined by state law, so we don’t discuss them here. If you get a notice of garnishment, what physically happens is that the bank “holds” your money for some period of time, usually 30 days. During that time you can assert your rights and maybe make them give you some of it back. Normally the notice of garnishment tells you where to find your state law rights, but if it doesn’t, just google the question “what are my rights against garnishment in X state” to get you started. Those rights can save you a lot of grief.
Fight the Law Suit – Don’t let them Garnish your Money
Sometimes people think things are so hopeless that it isn’t worth it to try to keep them from getting a judgment. You have nothing now for them to garnish, and you don’t expect ever to have enough for them to garnish. That’s called being “judgment proof.” Or they think that no matter what they do, they’ll lose if they try to defend themselves.
Don’t go there. Things could get better for you in any number of ways, from your job suddenly turning better, to people you don’t know dying or giving you money, or you getting some sort of great idea, or… just anything. The world is full of possibilities, and good things could happen. They’re much more likely to happen if you keep looking for them, too.
As for your chances, nothing is guaranteed, and in my opinion the deck is, in fact, stacked against you. However, you still have a very good chance of winning most of the time if you know what you’re doing. Debt collectors are not built to fight long law suits – they’re designed to shake the tree and collect whatever falls most easily. If you fight, they’ll often eventually quit, and even if they don’t you have a good chance of winning. And of course that’s why we’re here. You should fight the lawsuit whether you have money or not.
Don’t Ignore the Possibility of Losing Even if you Defend
Of course, if you’re being sued there’s always a chance you could lose. ALWAYS A CHANCE.
That means that you need to keep personal information about jobs and assets out of the hands of the debt collectors whenever possible.
If you have ever written a check to the company who is the alleged original creditor, you must assume that the debt collector has your banking information. You might want to change banks.
Remember that garnishments are served on people (including corporations and banks), not accounts, so it doesn’t do any good to cancel your account and get a new one in the same bank. But changing banks will go a long way to keep you from finding out, one day, that your bank account has been emptied and your checks are now bouncing.
For a lot of people it’s harder to change jobs. I’m just saying that if you do, it will be harder for the debt collector to garnish your wages. If they have any reason to know where your present job is, you should expect them to come for it.
Your Legal Leg Up
We are dedicated to helping people defend themselves from debt lawsuits without having to hire a lawyer. Lawsuits have a number of points where specific action is called or, and we have products to help you deal with most of these situations. Your best deal is by far a membership which gets you all our downloadable products for free and also invites you to our teleconferences. Teleconferences are designed to answer, in real time, questions you ask, to discuss strategies and tactics. They help you know what the other side is up to and potential actions you can take to stop them.
In addition to that, our website is a resource for all. Many of the articles and materials are reserved for members, but many others are available to everyone. Every page has a site search button in both the header and footer. Put in a key word – a word you think relates to what you’re looking for – and enter. You will get a page of results.
Sign Up for Free Information
You can sign up to receive information from us by clicking on this link and following the instructions: https://yourlegallegup.com/blog/sign-up-for-free-information/
What you’ll receive if you sign up is a series of several videos and articles spread out over several days, and then you will occasionally hear from us as we add information to the site. We don’t always announce that information, though.
What you will not receive is any marketing from other people – or much from us, either. Our goal is to make the site more useful to members and visitors, not to swamp anyone with sales materials. The information we send will have links to information or products that we think may be helpful.
Debt Verification – How to Protect Yourself
Understanding the Petition in a Debt Lawsuit
Understanding the Petition in a Debt Lawsuit
For a copy of this article in PDF form, click here: Understanding the Petition
If you are being sued by a debt collector, the first step in defending yourself is knowing who is suing you and what you are being sued for. You’ll want to know what facts the plaintiff thinks it can and needs to prove, and you’ll want to look for initial weaknesses in the case. In all of these things, you will need to understand how to read the petition and understand what it is doing.
Below, you will find a sample petition. The petition (also called “complaint” in some jurisdictions – the terms refer to the same thing) is in black, and my comments about what the petition is doing is in red ink. You will see that every part of the petition has its purpose and function.
For purposes of this article, I will refer only to a few parts of the case, as these areas are often discussed in the teleconference calls and people have shown that they do not understand them. But if you look at the annotated sample petition, you will see much more. Knowing what things are called is an important part of the process of understanding what they are and do and an important first step in defending your rights.
Caption
The caption of the case is the part where it says “Debt Collector vs You” and also the name of the court and jurisdiction. Although it has come up, very rarely, that the named plaintiff may not, actually, be the plaintiff (see our article and video on assignment in the glossary), normally the person named as plaintiff is the plaintiff.
In plain English, that means that if First National Bank is named as plaintiff, that’s the person suing you and not a debt buyer. If you have any reason to doubt that, you will want to use the discovery process to pry the truth loose.
And you are the defendant along with anyone else named as defendant in the caption.
The jurisdiction is also important, as this will either tell you that the court has dollar limits to its jurisdiction or not. At a minimum, you can use this part of the caption to find out whether the court does, indeed, have such limits. In general, if it does, the lower the limits, the less likely the court is to follow the rules of evidence rigorously. We usually want the highest court possible because it is critical to debt defense that the rules should be followed.
Title Heading of Suit
The title headings in a lawsuit are not formally treated as part of the lawsuit but are, instead, guidance. But what you need to know is that if you have different “counts” of the lawsuit there will be either more than one set of facts involved or, much more likely, more than one legal theory involved. If Count One is breach of contract, and Count Two is for Account Stated, you know you are being sued under two laws. In order to win your case, you will have to win on every count.
If you have no heading, or no heading that refers to counts, you are being sued based on one law (almost certainly), although it isn’t always perfectly clear from the petition what that is.
Wherefore Clause
This is the part of the suit that says, “wherefore, plaintiff requests…” In other words, it’s the part of the lawsuit that says what the plaintiff wants. If you want to know how much they’re suing you for, this is the place to look.
The wherefore clause is usually the last paragraph of a count. If your suit has more than one count, it will have more than one wherefore clause, one at the end of each count. If it does not have more than one count, it will probably be the last paragraph of the petition.
You need to know what the debt collector is suing you for. This is where you find that.
Sample Petition for Money Owed
IN THE ASSOCIATE CIRCUIT COURT “Associate” means limited jurisdiction
OF THE COUNTY OF XXXXX County or city jurisdiction
STATE OF XXXX
DEBT COLLECTOR COMPANY, LLC, This is the “Caption,” This name is the
ASSIGNEE OF CC COMPANY (Mastercard), plaintiff [the lawyer signing is not
Plaintiff, plaintiff, nor is Mastercard]
vs.
JOHN Q. PUBLIC,
Defendant.
COUNT ONE – SUIT ON MONEY OWED [Title. “Count One” indicates this claim has more than one legal basis. Lots of suits are brought on only one basis and don’t have “Count __” in them]
Comes Now Plaintiff and for its cause of action against the Defendant states as follows: [Intro, sometimes much longer]
Wherefore, plaintiff prays judgment against defendant in the principal amount of $1,332.14 together with interest of 39% per annum from December 7, 2005, and for costs and attorneys fees herein. [the “Wherefore clause.” Says what the plaintiff wants. Usually if it does not say “attorney’s fees,” they won’t be able to get them if they win]
COUNT TWO – ACCOUNT STATED [second claim, this one under law of account stated]
Wherefore, plaintiff prays judgment against defendant in the amount of $1,332.14 together with costs of this action and such other relief as this court deems appropriate under the law. [The “wherefore clause” for the account stated – note that it should not include attorney’s fees or (probably) interest]
Collection Law Firm [law firm’s signature, usually illegible. Both the named lawyer and the firm are representing plaintiff (but are NOT plaintiff) and would be on the hook for possible violations of FDCPA]
______________________
Collection lawyer,
Law Firm
Address
[There is usually some sort of affidavit to the effect that the defendant is not in active military service – if you are not, this is purely a formality. If you are in active military service, special rules apply to your case]
Class Warfare in America
There’s a myth in America that people can move up in life more here than anywhere else. It is also widely believed that because of this social mobility there isn’t a conflict between the classes.
In recent times, those myths are coming a little bit under fire. Partly we can thank the Democratic Socialists for this – AOC has done a lot to highlight the vast differences in income between the poor and the rich, and she, and other politicians, are beginning to suggest various things that might be done to address those differences. This, of course, has alarmed the right wing and the wealthy, and they are talking a lot about class warfare, too, but the only thing they’re worried about, of course, is the possibility that they will be targeted for special taxation.
We take a different view and sometimes discuss what we believe are the true causes of the wealth inequality in America and what should be done about it. Our point in the video below, however, is just that there has been a class war going on for a long time – and it’s being waged by the rich against the poor.
And the poor are losing big time.
Two of the “trenches” of the current class war are in debt litigation and foreclosure law. Over the past few years, foreclosure has been a little less frequent, but we believe it will soon accelerate. Debt litigation has not slowed down as far as we can tell. The supposed boom in employment has not led to higher wages in real terms or in greater opportunities for the working classes – they’re falling further behind.
Class Warfare in America
The Banks have you in their sights – Fight Back!
__________________________
Pennsylvania Debt Law
Special Defenses Available in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania has some very favorable, specific rules on what a debt collector must plead in order to bring a claim on a debt, and a procedure called “preliminary objections” that brings up these issues.
Despite the law imposing these requirements, the debt collectors ignore them, and chances are good that if you’re being sued in PA, they ignored them for you. That means that you can probably get the case kicked out by filing the appropriate Preliminary Objections. For more on this issue, see our materials related to the Pennsylvania Silver Bullet Pack below.
In addition to the pleading requirements, PA also has some very favorable law on the Account Stated claim that debt collectors like to use so often. An account stated claim, in general, requires that the plaintiff plead and prove that a normal billing relationship existed between the parties, that the plaintiff sent a bill (“accounting”) to which the defendant essentially agreed but did not pay. In most states, this “essential agreement” can be implied from almost nothing. In Pennsylvania, on the other hand, some real evidence of agreement needs to be produced. Of course, the debt collectors almost never have such evidence.
Pennsylvania Silver Bullet Pack – a great product that will stop most debt collectors – and a lot of other bad guys too – in Pennsylvania.
California Debt Law
California State-Specific Materials
This will be a long-term project, as we begin to write more articles that will address issues that arise in specific states. We will eventually have member-only material catalogued here for greater convenience.
California-specific Articles and Videos
Bill of Particulars in California, Part 1
A powerful weapon in fighting debt collectors in California – the bill of particulars
Demanding a Bill of Particulars in California, Part 2
If you are in California, you have a powerful tool against the debt collectors – a request for a bill of particulars
California-specific Products
California Bill of Particulars Pack – Californians have a tool, halfway between pleadings and discovery, that can force debt collectors to provide all the information you need to defend yourself from most of their claims. The bill of particulars will often make them drop all or part of their case – or to give you what you need to hammer them in court.
Oklahoma Law on Debt Collection
Oklahoma Debt Law
This will eventually be an article on small claims courts in Oklahoma.
Small claims courts are a frequent bane to debt defendants because they apply loose rules (of evidence and civil procedure) designed for pro se, unsophisticated parties disputing small amounts of money. Debt collectors, however, have discovered that these lax rules can make it easier for them to get even more default judgments and to win cases on obviously insufficient evidence. Oklahoma put a stop to that by enacting rules that forbid debt collectors from bringing their claims in small claims courts.
Of course this hasn’t stopped them.
Here is the rule: http://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=438809
Here’s an article. There will be more: https://www.okbar.org/freelegalinfo/smallclaims/
Debt Collector Dirty Tricks
The Debt Collection Business
For a free copy of this article in pdf form, click here: Debt Collector Dirty Tricks
Debt Collectors
At its best, debt collection is a hard business. They’re trying to force people who are already making tough choices to make different choices. To make a person give up food or insurance to pay a bill for something that’s already come and gone is hard to do. And even when the choice isn’t quite that stark, there’s always the challenge of making someone give up what they want NOW for what they used to want THEN.
On the other hand, most people do want to pay their bills, and they feel guilty and embarrassed when they don’t. The debt collectors know and use those facts regularly. You might consider efforts to trigger those feelings “dirty tricks,” but we won’t discuss them other than in certain extreme ways the debt collectors play their cards.
Debtors
People who owe money also usually feel, and are, vulnerable to various bad things, and many of the dirtiest tricks use this fact against them. From a slightly different angle, one of the things that get people into debt trouble in the first place is hope or optimism – they overestimate what they can or will do or they look for an easy way out. This can make them easy suckers for scams, from get-rich-quick scams to get-out-of-debt scams. But what concerns us most for purposes of this article is that it causes them to overestimate what they can pay or for how long they can do it. Thus there’s a tendency for people to make agreements they can’t keep.
In this article, we’ll discuss a few of the tricks the debt collectors play to use the weaknesses of people in debt against them so that you can recognize and prepare for them. We also have a report that you can get for free that has many more of the worst of the tricks.
I have found that a lot of people come to us after doing some things that hurt their rights. Part of our mission is to protect some of those rights before they get lost or damaged. We want to catch people earlier in the debt cycle, in other words. If you give the wrong person money, it’s almost impossible to get it back.
A Few Preliminary Words
There are a few things I will say before getting into the scams and tricks. First, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) makes almost all of the tricks we discuss here illegal. But some of them are not, as we will discuss.
The FDCPA generally requires fair-dealing and honesty of the debt collectors, and it makes deception and “misleading” behaviors illegal. It also gives them certain affirmative requirements. But it applies only to “debt collectors” as that term is defined, and there is currently a lot of uncertainty about exactly what the term means and just who is a debt collector even among legitimate operators, and there are a lot of crooks out there, too.
What there is really no doubt about at all is that debt collectors, whether they are within the definition of the FDCPA or not, will do almost anything to get your money. You know that. We can only list and describe a relatively few of their tricks, but you need to develop the habit of extreme caution and skepticism towards anybody who’s trying to get you to give them some money. You need PROOF of every aspect of what they’re saying, because, as we all know, paying the wrong person a bill we really owe doesn’t do any good at all – it just means we’re going to double-pay.
No legitimate debt collector will require you to act immediately the first time you hear from them. Don’t let them hurry you into lowering your standards of proof – that’s the key to all of their other tricks.
A Few of Their Tricks
The tricks here are only a few of what they have come up with, and they will constantly be coming up with more. These are merely examples. The tricks don’t all have formal names, but I have given them names to make them easier to remember.
Asking for Post-dated Checks
Sometimes a debt collector will urge you to send a post-dated check. That is, a check with a date on it that’s different than the actual date. You think the money will be there in a week, so you write the check for next week.
Debt collectors love to get you to do this. Why?
There are some legitimate reasons, and this isn’t always a scam or dirty trick. It is a fact that people get busy, have second thoughts, or simply change their minds – especially when it comes to paying money for something that doesn’t bring them pleasure. A debt collector has a legitimate interest, assuming the debt is valid and the collector is honest (which you should almost never do), in getting your money before any of that happens. He or she has talked you into doing something, and he doesn’t want it to come undone as soon as you hang up. A post-dated check is a good way to make your intention stick.
The problem is that you cannot trust the debt collector, yourself, or the world around you with this.
You can’t trust the debt collector because most debt collectors will say anything that comes to mind to get you to do what they want. They are under intense pressure to perform, and to perform quickly. Therefore, chances are good that the debt collector will not remember – and not even try to remember – that your check is post-dated check. That will be forgotten before you hang up.
So even if by chance your check goes to the debt collector who called you, she will put the check in the pile to go to the bank immediately. And it isn’t likely the person who called you will see the check – it will automatically go out for payment when it arrives in the office.
And you can’t even trust yourself on this. If you were just trying to get the debt collector to go away, or if you made a slight miscalculation, or if something unforeseen happens – as so often happens – you will be in trouble.
Attempt to Collect from Relatives of the Dead
With few exceptions, a parent or spouse’s debts do NOT transfer to anyone else. A deceased’s debts are claims against the decedent’s estate. That means, if there’s a will, that any claimants will have to make a claim against the estate in probate. If for some reason that doesn’t happen, then in some situations the “residuary” beneficiary of the will might be liable.
If the will says, “I leave $100 to Mary and the rest to John,” John is the residuary beneficiary, and John might under some circumstances be liable for a debt. But of course it almost never happens because the creditor would have to prove a variety of things that aren’t easy to prove. Most debt collectors want nothing to do with that. They’d rather try to get you to pay.
All you need to know is that if a debt collector is asking you to pay someone else’s bills it’s probably a scam.
Debt collectors know most people do not know the law and have never thought they might owe someone else’s bills. People who are grieving are less likely to question or oppose someone who asserts that they owe something. In other words, this scam requires catching you at a vulnerable time and taking advantage of it.
The FBI’s After You
In this scam, someone calls you up “from Washington” (or wherever) to let you know you’ve been implicated in some vague crime or misdeed. They’ve tried this one on me a couple of times, as a matter of fact, only the person was supposedly calling from the Social Security Administration to tell me my account had been “frozen” because someone was using the number to launder money.
The agent spoke fast and had a number to call for verification, but things were close to a boiling point. I was supposed to act quickly or expect the FBI to show up within the next day, or possibly hours. Of course the first thing I had to do was verify a few numbers for them…
This is obviously a criminal scam, with only the barest pretense at being debt collection when there is one – sometimes the threat is that agents are on the way to pick you up for non-payment of some debt, or whatever. The critical features are the urgency, the authority, and the threat.
The people doing this one are clearly not legitimate debt collectors, they’re criminals, but it may show up as a debt collection, and chances are good you’ve been targeted because of some perceived vulnerability. Tell these guys to take a hike.
There’s more in the report
You will find many more examples of debt collector dirty tricks in our free Bestiary of Debt Collector Dirty Tricks. You can find that by clicking here: https://yourlegallegup.com/blog/debt-collector-dirty-tricks/.
Protected: Debt Collector Dirty Tricks
A Question of Burden – General versus Affirmative Defenses
“General” versus “Affirmative” Defenses
Many debt defendants love the idea of affirmative defenses – they just sound stronger, don’t they? But in the law, they are specific things, and they are not better than general defenses. They’re just different. If you have an affirmative defense, that’s fine, and you probably wouldn’t want to ignore it. But general defenses are really the “bread and butter” of defense.
So what are these two types of defense?
General Defense or Denial
A general defense is one of two things. It CAN mean a general denial of every allegation in the petition. You’re saying, “prove it” to everything. Since the debt collector has the burden of proof, I would suggest you consider this if it is available to you. It’s easy, fast, and comprehensive. But of course your next move is on to discovery and the rest of defense.
Generically, a “general defense” is one where you deny an allegation. So, above, you could file a “general defense” which denies all paragraphs (if your jurisdiction allows this). Or normally you would simply deny all or most of the paragraphs of the plaintiff’s petition. Every denial is a “general defense” that leaves the burden of proof on the plaintiff.
Affirmative Defenses
Affirmative defenses are something else. They amount to a statement that, “even if what the plaintiff is true, I don’t owe because …”
One example of this might be a settlement – suppose you entered an agreement to pay and did pay the other side, but they sue you anyway. If so, your general denial will be to deny the allegations of the petition, but then you’ll add an affirmative defense: On x day, the parties entered into settlement discussions and formed an agreement. Defendant fully performed this agreement on y day, paying z dollars for a “complete settlement of all claims.” See, attached (a copy of the agreement).
Thus, the facts that you have alleged amount to a complete defense to the action (known as “accord and satisfaction). And note that the facts are pleaded with “particularity” (in detail), and the defendant has the burden of proof of these things.
Other examples of affirmative defenses include collateral estoppel, res judicata, unclean hands, statute of limitations, and laches. There could be others. In each case the defendant would bear the burden of pleading the facts constituting the defense and proving them at trial. Since a general denial leaves the burden of proof on the plaintiff, they’re usually more important.