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.

( to be continued )