According to U.S. law, a person can only attempt to collect a debt from the person who owes him money. Even if a person related to the debtor has assets that are available for seizure, the creditor cannot seize this money. This would include a bank account that is not in the debtor's name. This money could only be seized if a court could tie the debtor to it.
Civil Judgment
In order to take money forcibly from a debtor, the creditor must first win a civil lawsuit against the debtor. If he wins, the creditor will be provided with a civil judgment that will declare, legally, how much money the debtor owes to the creditor. This civil judgment will then be collectible in a variety of ways, including, in many cases, the garnishment of the debtor's wages or the freezing of his bank account.
Bank Freezing
The freezing of a bank account is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the account's garnishment. In fact, this process is called freezing. After an account has been frozen -- which can only be done with the permission of a judge -- then the creditor can usually pull funds out of it to pay off the civil judgment. However, freezes can only be applied to accounts that the debtor controls.
Debtor's Assets
An account does not necessarily have to have a debtor's name on it to be frozen, but it does have to be shown conclusively to be controlled by the debtor's name and to include the debtor's funds. A judge cannot order the account of a relative of a debtor to be frozen unless the account includes a large amount of the debtors' funds.
Considerations
The way that a creditor could seize money from a bank account that does not have the debtor's name on it is if the creditor could find a means of showing that the account was in fact owned by the debtor. Or, alternatively, the creditor could seize funds if he could show that the account holder was someone responsible for the debt that he was attempting to collect on.
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