<prompt> Human: UPDATE: The bank finally managed to get through to them. The bad news is that there is nothing they can do to help. I spoke with the branch manager and she said that this law firm has a nasty reputation for pulling crazy bullshit on people. THE GOOD NEWS - I do not in fact owe them anywhere near this much money. According to state law, if they want to seize funds from my account they have to put a hold on it for twice the amount, and it has to be done to all of my accounts. So I need to call them directly so that they can get a court order to take the 1200 or so that I owe them 1200 I can survive, its gonna be rice and beans until January but at least Im not about to become homeless, which was a legitimate concern up until now. So Im guessing its going to be a while before this gets sorted and I have any access at all to my money, but at least right now Im at badly fucked as opposed to terminally fucked. Thanks for the help.To sum things up, I logged in to check my balances late last night after my card was declined at a bar and found that between my three accounts all with one bank I was massively overdrawn. Were talking three accounts, all of which had around 2300 missing. Even a savings account I opened a few months ago that is and has always been empty is well over 2 grand in the hole.I went to the bank today and all they could tell me was that the name on the transactions was that of a law firm that sued me during the summer over an old 1600 credit card debt. I agreed on a repayment plan with them at the time and everything was fine, I paid off about 400 of it so far but I have fallen behind on things with the holidays and have missed a couple of payments. They havent called me or anything at all. I was getting things back together and was actually planning on paying them another 400 that I had managed to save up today. The bank manager tried to contact them but just got an answering machine. She is going to try again first thing in the morning and then call me back but Im going crazy sitting here trying to figure out whats happening. I had around a thousand dollars in those accounts because I just got paid recently, and its all gone now. I have no cash on me, no credit cards, and no way to access any of my money since every account is well over a thousand dollars in the negative. The crazy thing is that between all of the accounts this is nearly seven thousand dollars! I currently only owe them like 1400 in the first place. Are they garnishing my wages? I knew when I got behind on things that that was a possibility but I didnt have a lot of options so it was a risk I had no choice but to take. I had no idea they could just walk into my bank accounts and completely ruin me like that though. I cant even stop the direct deposit on my next paycheck in time at this point - its just going to get dumped into the black whole of overdrawn accounts and I dont know how Im going to eat or keep my apartment.Assistant: It sounds like they garnished your account after getting a court judgment or something. You need to get all documentation related to this matter from the bank.Were you ever served with a lawsuit notice? Generally, you lose if you dont show up in court, but the plaintiff has to prove that you were served notice usually via certified mail or personal service, or in other words they have to prove that you were notified of the lawsuit in the first place.If you were never notified, then any court judgment issued is likely in error.However, none of us here are lawyers and if any of us were, we would not be your lawyer. You need to find a lawyer.Human: I havent be served any paperwork about this, in person or otherwise. Just suddenly all of my money has been removed from my account 5 or 6 times as much money as I even had in the first place in fact. When they originally sued me early last summer I was served in person, went to court, talked to the guy, went home. Made a couple of payments and then got behind when money got a little tight.Assistant: OK, so you did go to court. I assume you lost and got a judgment against you. What were the terms of your repayment? Did you fall behind? Even if not, with a judgment in their favor, the other party can legally take what the judgment is for from your bank account. This is possibly even true if they worked out a payment plan with you that wasnt made binding by the court. But, if you got behind, they probably went ahead and executed the full judgment.The bottom line is, you need a lawyer. But if the other party has a legal judgment for the amount they took, the money is probably gone.Human: Im sure they have a legal right to take what I owed, Im just not sure they had any kind of right to take 5 times that much. Im in the negative just under 7000.00 at this point. I only ever owed them 1600 in the first place, and Ive paid off 400 of it already.Im trying to find the paperwork from the court date right now. I know I agreed to pay a certain amount on the 15th of each month until it was paid off, but I dont know what the exact terms were for what happens when I miss a couple of months. I knew wage garnishment was a possibility but I didnt think theyd suddenly suck seven thousand dollars out of my bank accounts that I never had in the first place.  <response>: Do you have the repayment agreement on hand? It might be a good time to look over the penalties sections. 