San Diego, it is taking the court s 4-6 months to process requests for default judgments in civil cases. Look at the dates on the default notices. Where they filed before or after the petition filing date. Also, there is a mandatory judicial council form to notify the state court of the automatic stay. Don’t go off half-cocked. Even the most debtor-friendly judges only want to see the “real” violations; not just the technical ones. I recently had a motion for sanctions denied in a case where I had sent a warning letter by CM;RRR to the offending plaintiff’s attorney who refused to return funds that were garnished post-petition. The judge was new and gutless, but it’s her call, and she felt as though it should be enough for them to return the money “voluntarily” after all of this was brought to the court’s attention. Get into the habit of sending warning letters by CM;RRR any time something like this happens. If they take the warning and back off, that’s a good result. If they don’t, then that’s when you get an even better result (most of the time). I think you have to really evaluate the claim for any damages… if there are no damages other than the illegal violation, they may just void it and is as simple as that… on the other hand if like, in the case we are working on right now, they got rid of all her personal stuff, pictures from kids, house furniture, wedding albums from 27 years of marriage, tools, furniture, etc (long list)… then you have a good damage claim and you could look at a strong case for punitive award. So it could be as easy as undo the wrong… or major damages… the devil is in the details and it warrants research.
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