When a person owes a large debt, then the creditor may seek to claim the money using various methods provided him under the law. One of the most popular methods is the seizure sometimes referred to as the "garnishment" of a bank account. While bank account garnishment is legal in many states, a minor's bank account cannot generally be seized unless it is being used to hold an adult's money.
Garnishment
A bank account can only be garnished when a person owes a debt to a creditor and the creditor receives permission from a judge to garnish the debtor's account. This garnishment will only be granted if the creditor has filed a lawsuit in civil court and won. When this happens, the creditor can only garnish funds owned by the debtor, not funds controlled by another party, such as a child.
Child Debts
Legally, minors children under the age of 18 cannot take on debts in the U.S. This is because minors are legally forbidden from signing contracts before the age of 18. Therefore, any contract that a minor signs must be endorsed by his parents. Any debt that a minor took on would, in fact, be his parents' debt. This means a child cannot be named in a debt lawsuit.
Minor Bank Accounts
A creditor could not seize a bank account held by a minor because the minor cannot legally take on any debts. Therefore, a creditor cannot receive a garnishment order against the minor because the creditor can only receive an order against someone who owes him money. Under U.S. law, creditors can only seek payment from the debtors themselves, not from relatives or associates of the debtor.
Considerations
The only way that a creditor could conceivably garnish money from a minor's bank account would if it could show that the bank account was in fact being used to shelter money for the debtor. Even if the account was nominally controlled by the minor, it could be garnished if the court could be persuaded that the debtor was using the account to hide funds that were actual his own.
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