To accomplish this result Mr. Padian applied a little-used statutory provision to access and sell at auction the Debtor’s collection of high-value jewelry secreted in a safe deposit box at a commercial bank. This was a long-sought victory against a very evasive Debtor. Persistence and creativity, two key elements of Lanak & Hanna’s Creditors’ Rights practice, is what got the job done.
In the Lanak & Hanna commercial collections department, certain collections practices and procedures are so effective that they are used, or at least considered, in nearly every case. The bank levy process is one of these practices.
A collections attorney’s bread and butter, a bank levy is a process whereby, following a judgment, we are legally permitted to freeze and seize the money in a debtor’s bank account to apply to our client’s judgment. But the bank levy is not strictly limited to bank accounts, it extends to safe deposit boxes and their contents as well.
When a safe deposit box is levied, the attorney must go with the sheriff’s deputies to the bank where the box is held. The sheriff drills open the box and the contents are inventoried and each item is separately bagged and retained by the sheriff’s department pending a public auction, the proceeds of which are applied to the debt owed to the creditor’s judgment.
For more information on the bank levy process, please contact Lanak & Hanna Associate Attorney Thomas M. Padian, [email protected].
The information contained herein is not advice and should not be treated as such.
Pursu Agency