Ask the Law Guy

Ask the Law Guy

Have you got a question about:

The law?
The legal system?
A legal problem?

E-mail it to me and I'll pick the most interesting to answer here.

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I appreciate the GOOD advice. I plan to call my probate attorney to followup.

My husband moved out of our house today. He was a stay-at-home dad for our two young children. He wants to continue to watch them while I am at work which will allow him access to our home. I am fine with him watching them for now since daycare for two would be very expensive and it is not in my budget. I would like to install deadbolts that would lock him out of the house when he is not supposed to be here such as at night or weekends. I can lock him out right? He mentioned to me this afternoon, if he can not afford rent where he is at he will move back. Can he move back in with out me agreeing?

Usually when one spouse leaves the marital residence, the spouse who has remained there can bar the other from moving back in. However as long as the house is titled in both names, both spouses are legally entitled to the use of the property.

Often I see that spouses who have separated try to resolve things informally. Sometimes this works, but it also puts off problems that have to be dealt with later when it has become a crisis, such as each parent insists on having the children for Christmas. What you and your husband need to do is establish clear ground rules on several things:

Who is going to keep the children and when is the other parent going to get visitation?
What is going to happen to the house?
Who is going to pay any debts that you have?
How are the parents going to divide financial responsibility for the children?
Will there be any form of alimony?

If the two of you cannot work out the answers to these questions between yourselves, you will need to get the help of a lawyer or mediator. If you wait until there is a confrontation over one of these questions, it will be much harder to work out.

Discover Bank has acquired a default judgment against me via a North Carolina law firm. I've attempted to work out a payment plan with the law firm that I can afford, but the amount that they are requesting is more than I can pay. We are considering bankruptcy. My question is this: Can a consumer creditor, such as Discover Bank and their NC attorneys, seize and/or take money from my bank account in NC? I know they can't garnish my wages, ...and I've completed my motion for exemptions form that I was served. My fear is that they will take money from our bank account on my payday (I'm a teacher and get paid once a month) and then my family will be unable to pay our bills such as electricity, car payment, house payments, etc. I know bank levies can go into place for tax bills and such, but can this by done for outstanding credit card debt for which a judgment has been issued?

The procedure for enforcing a money judgment is called "execution." In an execution the sheriff is required to locate any non-exempt assets the debtor has and seize them to sell or apply toward the money owed. A bank account is an asset and and if the money does not qualify as an exemption, it is subject to seizure. Whether or not that will actually happen depends on how aggressive the creditor is.

If you cannot pay and are unlikely to be able to pay for the foreseeable future, you should consider bankruptcy since it would probably eliminate the debt for good.

Important fine print

The owner/operator of this website is Bryan Gates, an attorney in Winston-Salem, N.C. E-mailing a question to a website (even a cleverly designed website) is no substitute for live, in-person contact with an attorney if you have a legal problem. In order to avoid legal troubles of my own, I cannot answer questions about the laws of states other than North Carolina. For more information about The Law Guy, check out:

www.attorneygates.com

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