# Suing Yourself and Garnishing Wages to Frustrate Creditors **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 23, 2005, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suing-yourself-and-garnishing-wages-to-frustrate-creditors/318254 "2005-08-23T13:40:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suing-yourself-and-garnishing-wages-to-frustrate-creditors/318254/41 "2005-08-26T21:40:41Z")
One more article on the effectiveness of foreign asset protection trusts in avoiding the claims of existing creditors: [http://www.taxprophet.com/hot/oct98.htm](http://www.taxprophet.com/hot/oct98.htm) (says they are expensive and useless). ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suing-yourself-and-garnishing-wages-to-frustrate-creditors/318254/42 "2005-08-26T21:54:24Z")
Much more of this, **Gfactor** , and people are going to start getting the impression that it’s pretty hard to hide your assets and fool your creditors in a way that isn’t illegal. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suing-yourself-and-garnishing-wages-to-frustrate-creditors/318254/43 "2005-08-26T22:04:32Z")
> [@](#): > > Much more of this, Gfactor, and people are going to start getting the impression that it’s pretty hard to hide your assets and fool your creditors in a way that isn’t illegal. Aw, shucks, we can’t have that. We’re all smarter than any creditor, right? So this oughta be easy. 😉 Two much more effective and legal ways of avoiding debts: 1. Bankruptcy, though this will be tougher soon. Even if you file a chapter 13, though, you probably won’t have to pay back the whole debt. 2. If the debt is not huge, leave the country, or at least the state. Offers you no defense, but neither do the options outlined above. Distance is one of the best deterrents to collection. I once won a case involving hundreds of thousands of dollars by getting the case dismissed on personal jurisdiction grounds. The case involved a letter of credit allegedly issued my my client, a bank in Hawaii, to a creditor in Oregon. The plaintiff sued in federal court in Oregon, and I managed to persuade the court that it lacked personal jurisdiction. As a result, the plaintiff would have had to sue in Hawaii, which it decided not to do. As a result, my client was not required to pay anything on the letter. (They had other defenses, too, btw). ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suing-yourself-and-garnishing-wages-to-frustrate-creditors/318254/44 "2005-08-26T22:16:37Z")
[Here is an amusing case about a related type of scheme that also did not work.](http://www.legalunderground.com/2004/02/i_was_ready_to_.html) BTW, it undercores another potential source of trouble for Bob. If he’s not careful about what he is doing, he could go up the river for money laundering. Most money laundering statutes require the money to come from unlawful activities. But as this case shows, not all of them do. > **[Money laundering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_laundering)** > > Money laundering is the process of changing large amounts of money obtained from crimes, such as drug trafficking, into origination from a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions with varying definitions. It is a key operation of the underground economy. > In US law it is the practice of engaging in financial transactions to conceal the identity, source, or destination of illegally gained money. In UK law the common law definition is wider. The act is defined as "taking any action... ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suing-yourself-and-garnishing-wages-to-frustrate-creditors/318254/45 "2005-08-27T14:16:38Z")
Here are a few good sources of information about legitimate asset protection planning: [Bloomberg Industry Group](http://www.bnatax.com/tm/tmm0904_zaluda.rtf) (rtf) [http://www.itpa.org/open/archive/cainoffshore.rtf](http://www.itpa.org/open/archive/cainoffshore.rtf) (rtf) [http://www.aaepa.com/documents/0306\_EPJournal\_AssetProtection\_DS.rtf](http://www.aaepa.com/documents/0306_EPJournal_AssetProtection_DS.rtf) (rtf) > **[FindLaw for Legal Professionals | Law & Legal Information](https://lp.findlaw.com)** > > Find access to cases, codes and free legal information for lawyers and consumers at LP.FindLaw.com. [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi\_qa3663/is\_200404/ai\_n9348767](http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3663/is_200404/ai_n9348767) [http://wneclaw.wnec.edu/faculty/baker/APT.htm](http://wneclaw.wnec.edu/faculty/baker/APT.htm) As you can see, there are some complicated issues. Don’t try this at home kids, get the help of a professional, and do it before the creditors start knocking. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suing-yourself-and-garnishing-wages-to-frustrate-creditors/318254/46 "2011-05-27T21:21:46Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Also, in order to receive a default judgement, a plaintiff must submit an affadavit laying out the facts upon which the judgement is based. If the defendant contests these facts, there’s a trial; if the defendant doesn’t show up, the court will issue a judgement on the affadavit. Since the affadavit sets forth a fraudulant claim, the making of it is perjury, punishable by § 18.2-434. I think you have something here. If you could just file a petition saying that you are suing William J. Norton of 532 Sunshine Place, Richmond, Virginia because he is a stupid head, and have him served with legal papers informing him that he is being sued for being a “dummkopf in propia persona” and that his court date is December 5th, assuming that he won’t show up, the court may insist that you establish a “prima facie” case with some legally recognized justification (e.g. his dog attacked you) before granting you summary judgment. If this wasn’t the case, all sorts of abuses could arise. I could get a phone book for Barrow, Alaska and pick random people and sue them locally in Virginia, asking the court for $500 judgments, and have Alaskan process servers serve the papers. Now, since it’s going to cost our northern Alaskan defendants more than $500 to defend against the suit (either hire a Virginia attorney, or take leave from work and buy a round trip ticket and a hotel stay to come to my local courthouse), they may decide that the cheapest option is to ignore it and take the default judgment. That’s unjust, since it makes a mockery of the legal system. I could even look for people in the local community who might be unlikely to appear (e.g. people with moderate mental disabilities who barely have enough capacity to live in the community), and wait for them to fail to appear, then garnish their welfare. That is obviously wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suing-yourself-and-garnishing-wages-to-frustrate-creditors/318254/47 "2011-05-27T21:33:02Z")
Thanks for the response. I think this is the most Zombi-fied thread in which I was the OP and got a response. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suing-yourself-and-garnishing-wages-to-frustrate-creditors/318254.md?page=2)