Ava is a single mother with a young child. She and her husband were separated, and she had returned to live with her mother. Ava was being garnished by a debt buyer company on a judgment from an old credit card. Ava said she had no knowledge of the card or the judgment.

Her attorney discovered that the judgment happened in 2019 when she was living out of state with her husband while occasionally using her mother’s home as a permanent address. Ava said that her mother rented rooms to several others at the house and doesn’t pay much attention to the mail or other events around the house. Ava stated that the family had problems with their stepbrother who used to live there. It turned out that the stepbrother stole an ID and some checks from Ava and cashed them illegally. After being excluded from the mother’s house, the stepbrother fled to South America and would not communicate with the US police or the family about these crimes.

Her attorney told Ava that if she was willing to complete an ID Theft Affidavit, they would represent her in opposing the garnishment and seeking to vacate the judgment. We were successful in getting the garnishment dismissed and eventually the creditor accepted her Affidavit and dropped the case entirely.