Lawsuit Challenges OCSE Notice
May 1, 2009
Author: Catherine M. Callery (Kate)| Louise M. Tarantino
Hardly a newsletter goes by without some mention of the seemingly endless problems our clients face with frozen bank accounts. The July 2008 edition, available at www.empirejustice.org, reported on New York’s new Exempt Income Protection Act (S.6203/A.8527), which will better protect statutorily exempt income from access by creditors. Under the new Act, the first $2,500 in an account that has had statutorily exempt payments deposited either electronically or by direct deposit in the last 45 days before a restraining notice was served on the bank is protected.
Johnson Tyler of South Brooklyn Legal Services has taken on another back account problem faced by Social Security recipients. He has recently filed a lawsuit in U.S. District for Eastern District of New York challenging the Office of Child Support Enforcement’s (OCSE) failure to provide proper notice when freezing the bank accounts of Social Security recipients who owe child support. Johnson reminds us that Social Security benefits are collectable for child support arrears. New York, however, has a “self-support” reserve that prohibits collection from Social Security recipients who live below the poverty line when the children for whom the support was ordered are grown up (over 21). OCSE’s defective notice fails to advise the debtor of this exemption.
The law suit - O’Brien v. Hansell - also challenges OCSE’s practice of repeatedly freezing the bank accounts of the plaintiff even when it is aware through Johnson’s advocacy, as well as through a downward modification hearing, that the plaintiff is living below the poverty line. The complaint is available in the Benefits Law Database section of the Online Resource Center. Kudos to Johnson for his tireless pursuit of these issues. Stayed tuned to these pages for updates on his litigation.
Copyright © Empire Justice Center. All rights reserved. Articles may be reprinted only with permission of the authors.
