STEALTH ARREST WARRANTS FOR DEBT IN THE U.S.A.

There are no debtor prisons in America since the 19th century. Before and during the 19th century, creditors had the power to put debtors in special prisons called ‘debtor prisons.’ Debtors in prison were allowed by creditors to get out of prison temporarily to work to pay them back. When the debts were fully paid, debtors were given their freedom and allowed to leave prison. However, because of the long term recession that we have been experiencing with many people losing their jobs and unable to pay debts, creditors all across America are resorting to all kinds of dirty tricks to force debtors to pay, including putting debtors in jail.

 Did you read that right? Yes. Unfortunately, under certain circumstances creditors can put debtors in jail for unpaid debt, even for the smallest amount, even for $100. I call this STEALTH ARREST WARRANTS FOR DEBT because debtors are completely unaware that there is a warrant for their arrest until something happens and they get arrested. Usually, debtor will have a moving traffic violation for speeding or some other traffic citation. When the police officer verifies his driver’s license, an outstanding warrant of arrest is shown on his record. The police officer arrests debtor and puts him in jail. Debtor then spends a few hours or even overnight in jail until the court calls his case.

Debtor then finds out that the warrant of arrest was issued against him because a creditor sued him to collect, got a judgment, a court hearing was then set for a debtor examination under oath for debtor to list his assets so that creditor would be advised on which bank accounts to levy and assets to attach to enforce collection. However, debtor never knew anything about the lawsuit, knew about it but completely disregarded the lawsuit, or knew about the debtor examination hearing but chose to ignore it.

Legally, what happened was that the court issued an order directing debtor to appear for examination where creditor can ask him questions about his assets to allow creditor to enforce judgment against these assets. When debtor failed to show up for that examination, in contempt of the court order requiring him to show up, resulted in the issuance of a bench warrant for contempt of court.

When police officers have nothing much to do, they will make house calls to arrest debtors. In Los Angeles where police officers are pretty busy, debtors end up getting arrested when they get a traffic ticket.

What do creditors do to get debtors arrested? Obviously, they lie to the court saying that debtor has been served with the summons and complaint and thus has been legally notified that there is a lawsuit against debtor. I have seen several proofs of service of summons and complaint where creditor’s process server outright lies to the court about having served debtor. The proof of service declares that the summons was personally served on debtor who is described to be a Hispanic male in his late forties. In reality, debtor is Taiwanese in his late sixties. Yet another proof of service states that the summons was personally delivered to an 18-year old child of debtor. In reality, debtor has no children and lives by herself. Thus, the lawsuit proceeds through all the court proceedings, commenced by this lie, with debtor totally unaware that he has been sued. Eventually, a default judgment is entered. Then the court orders debtor to appear on a certain date for a debtor’s examination. Debtor is unaware that there is a judgment against him and that he has been ordered to appear for debtor exam. The date for the debtor exam arrives and debtor fails to appear because he is unaware that there is one.

 A bench warrant of arrest is issued against debtor for failure to appear is ‘contempt’ of a court order. Consult a bankruptcy lawyer to avoid getting arrested for unpaid debt.

Lawrence Bautista Yang is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and has been in law practice for thirty years. He specializes in bankruptcy, business and civil litigation and has handled more than four thousand successful bankruptcy cases in California. He speaks Mandarin and Fujien and looks forward to discussing your case with you personally. Please call (626) 284-1142 for an appointment at 1000 S Fremont Ave Bldg A-1 Suite 1125 Unit 58 Alhambra, CA 91803.