<prompt> Human: So heres our situation. My wife was 5,000.00 in debt with a credit card company and it went to collections 20052006. She received a notice from their attorneys or a collection agencyshe cant rememberregarding her debt in 2009. There was not a court date specified on the order. She then gave this paperwork to her friend who is an attorney but doesnt really specialize in this type of law. At which point, on numerous occasions reached out to them in order to reach a settlement. They refused to respond to calls, emails, and letters. Then in 2012 they gave her current employer paperwork notice to garnish her wages an the amount was increased to 12,000.00 At that point my wifes attorney desperately tried to get a hold of these attorneyscollectors so as to reach some sort of settlementagreement. They again never replied to any phone messages and letters. As of today she has received the paperwork for the wage garnishment and it will be processed the next pay period. The debt is now 14,000.00! The reason why I feel this is a phantom debt is...she NEVER received the notice of the court date. This issue is NOT on her credit or credit history. What are our options? Help!  <response>: Step 1: Get an actual attorney with knowledge in this particular part of the law. I am not a lawyer, but perhaps the legal advice subreddit can help you identify what to look for in a lawyer for this type of case.Step 2: Most likely you will need to write a letter of objection to the garnishment to the court the judgement was rendered in. Attend any objection hearing.If you do not think this debt if actually valid, you will need to challenge the judgement itself. Definitely will need an attorney to do that for you.Also, learn a very important lesson here to never simply ignore a debt collection notice and definitely do not ignore garnishment paperwork. And never thrust off your problems to a friend to have them sort out. If the friend was not able to get a hold of the collection agency, you and your wife should have picked up the issue and gone to the court to sort it out. You need to start doing that now. 