Cohen & Slamowitz won a claim against me in the Civil Court Queens County New York without me even being notified of such an action or a court date to appear so I could be represented - IS THIS LEGAL?
In order for a judgment to have been entered, there is required "service" of the lawsuit. If you go to the courthouse in Queens, on the first floor past room 101 on the right are windows where the clerks are. Bring whatever information you have and bring quarters so you can copy the judgment, the summons and complaint, and the affidavit of service of the summons and complaint, if you need to. (Those papers will show you when and where the lawsuit was supposedly served on you, and you can dispute those allegations). You will need to file what is called an Order To Show Cause, to seek to vacate the judgment that was entered. You need to show two reasons to vacate the judgment 1) a reasonable excuse for not Answering the complaint (such as you never got it) and 2) a meritorious defense to the claim that you owe the money. The clerks will assist you with what you will need to do. Be sure that you follow all their directions. As the previous responder said, you should do this as soon as possible to avoid any restraints on your bank account or holds on other property. Now, another option is that if you owe the money that is sought, you can call the attorneys office and see if they would be willing to work out a settlement with you. If you choose to do that, be sure to get the settlement agreement in writing and, that you can abide by any agreement you make. Best of luck to you.
In order to get the judgment, they would have had to produce an affidavit from a process server attesting that
he served you. If you want to challenge it at this point, you would have to proceed by order to show cause asking
that the judgment be vacated for non-service and requesting a hearing on whether or not service was actually valid.
Following the prior answer, this is something that you can do yourself. Go to the Courthouse on Sutphin Blvd, and the Clerks will show you what to do. If you don't do it quickly, the firm can freeze your bank account.
