Vermont Fair Debt Consumer Guide
Learn about your legal rights when facing Debt Collector Problems. Research the applicable laws that could help protect you when a debt collector is attempting to seize your assets, garnish your wages or continue collection of a debt that is outside Vermont's Statutes Of Limitations. Vermont phone recording laws could assist you in gathering proof of the debt collector's illegal tactics; find out whether recording your debt collector's phone conversation is permitted in your state.
The Vermont Fair Debt Collection Consumer Practices Guide summarizes Vermont's laws on wage garnishment, property and asset seizures and state statutes of limitations on debt collection and could provide the ammunition you need to stop or limit creditors and collectors from harassing you, garnishing your wages or bank accounts, and from seizing your property through liens, thus limiting your overall financial exposure.
This Guide does not include information concerning the FTC's Credit Practices Rule, state consumer protection laws or information regarding exemption provisions found in laws other than the state's general exemption laws and is not intended to substitute for the advice of an attorney.
Vermont Consumer Debt Exemption Laws
If a debt collector threatens to seize your property or your assets, you could be protected under Vermont’s Consumer Debt Exemption Laws. Read the summarized information below to learn how to protect what you own and what you cannot protect from seizure. You could significantly strengthen your bargaining position with debt collectors by knowing your rights under Vermont Debt Exemption Law!
Vermont Statutes
Vermont has not opted out of federal bankruptcy exemptions.
Wages: Vermont Statutes Annotated title 12, §§ 3170 and 1372.
Homestead: Vermont Statutes Annotated title 27, §§ 101, 107, 109.
Tangible personal property: Vermont Statutes Annotated title 12, §§ 2740, 3023.
Benefits, retirement plans, insurance, judgments, and other intangibles:
Vermont Statutes Annotated title 12, § 2740. See Vermont Statutes Annotated title 3, § 476.
Vermont Debt Statutes of Limitation
Your debt may have expired under Vermont’s Statutes of Limitations, and may be considered uncollectible. Read the summary below to see the length of time certain types of debt can continue to be collected under the Vermont Debt Statutes of Limitations, don’t let a collector threaten to take you to court over an expired debt.
Vermont Debt Statutes of Limitation
Contracts and goods on account: 6 years.
Witnessed promissory notes: 14 years
Vermont Wage Garnishment Procedural Requirements
Wage garnishment doesn’t mean a debt collector or creditor is entitled to take all your money. Under Vermont’s Wage Garnishment Laws, there are limits and protections on just how much can be taken from your paycheck.
Read the summary below to learn your garnishment rights under Vermont law.
Vermont Wage Garnishment Procedural Requirements
Trustee process may be used in any civil action commenced in a superior court or the district court except in actions for malicious prosecution, libel, slander or alienation of affections. Vt. Statute. Ann. art. 12, _ 3011. A person or corporation, or the Statutee of Vermont by service upon the Statutee treasurer, may be summoned as a trustee of the defendant. The goods, effects or credits of the defendant which are in the hands of such trustee at the time of service of the writ upon the trustee, or which come into the trustee's hands or possession before disclosure, shall thereby be attached and held to respond to final judgment in the cause. Vt. Statute. Ann. art. 12, _ 3013.
Where issuance of post judgment trustee process is authorized by law, the judgment on which execution has issued shall be deemed an order of approval authorizing the clerk to issue one or more summons to any trustee specified by the judgment creditor, provided that no such summons shall be issued with respect to earnings and the sum of the amounts for which the goods, effects or credits of the debtor attached on trustee process does not exceed the amount that may be collected in levying execution. The judgment creditor also shall serve on the trustee and the debtor a disclosure form and list of exemptions. Vt. R. Civil. P. 4.2(k).
Each summons to a trustee shall be filled out and issued to the plaintiff's attorney by the clerk of the court in the county where the judgment was entered or the trustee resides. Vt. R. Civil. P. 4.2(b)(1). The summons to a trustee shall be dated and signed by the clerk. It shall contain the name of the court, the names of the parties, and the order of approval (the judgment on which execution has issued). It shall be directed to the trustee, Statutee the name and address of the plaintiff's attorney, the amount for which the goods, effects, or credits of the defendant are attached, and the time within which these rules require the trustee to make disclosure. It shall notify the trustee that in case of the trustee's failure to do so the trustee will be defaulted and adjudged trustee as alleged. The amount so attached shall not exceed the amount specified in the order of approval. Vt. R. Civil. P. 4.2(c).
The plaintiff's attorney shall deliver to the person who is to make service the original trustee summons upon which to make his or her return of service and two copies thereof for service upon the defendant and trustee. The trustee summons shall be served in like manner and with the same effect as other process. Plaintiff's attorney shall also serve a disclosure form on the trustee along with the summons (personal service or first class mail, postage prepaid with a notice and acknowledgment and a return envelope, postage prepaid, addressed to sender). If the answer on the disclosure form do not provide adequate information, plaintiff may submit interrogatories to the trustee pursuant to Rule 33, but such interrogatories must be concise. A list of exemptions shall also be served on the defendant and the trustee. Vt. R. Civil. P. 4.2(d).
When a person is adjudged a trustee, his costs and charges shall be retained out of the goods, effects and credits in his hands, and he shall be chargeable on execution for the balance. Vt. Statute. Ann. art. 12, _ 3084. When a person is adjudged a trustee on account of specific articles of personal property, he shall not be obliged to deliver the same to the officer serving the execution, until his costs and charges are fully paid or tendered. Vt. Statute. Ann. art. 12, _ 3085.
When the trustee is discharged, he shall recover judgment against the plaintiff for his costs and charges and have execution thereof. Vt. Statute. Ann. art. 12, _ 3086. The plaintiff in a trustee process shall give security for costs to the trustee by way of recognizance by some person other than the plaintiff. The security shall be in the sum of $10 for a summons returnable before the district court and in the sum of $50 for a summons returnable to a superior court. If trustee process issues without a minute of the recognizance, with the name of the surety and the sum in which he is bound, signed by the clerk, thereon, the trustee shall be discharged. Vt. Statute. Ann. art. 12, _ 3087.
Interest Rate at which Judgments Accrue In the writ of execution, the clerk shall set forth the amount of post judgment interest due per day, calculated on the full amount of principal included in the judgment at the maximum rate allowed by law. Vt. R. Civil. P. 69. The legal rate of interest shall be twelve percent per annum. Vt. Statute. Ann. tit. 9, _ 41a. Applicable Forms Notice and Acknowledgment, Vt. R. Civil. P., Form 1B or 1C. List of exemptions, Vt. R. Civil. P., Form 34. Summons to Trustee, Vt. R. Civil. P., Form 2A. Trustee's Disclosure, Vt. R. Civil. P., Form 21A. 4.0.
Vermont (Debt Collector) Call Recording Law
Under Vermont State and Federal Call Recording Laws, you could record the actual phone conversation with a debt collector in your efforts to stop debt collectors from calling! Vermont is a one party consent state, meaning only the permission of one person on the call is necessary to record. YOU ALONE can be considered the one party to give consent, thus you do not need a debt collectors permission to record the phone conversation in the state of Vermont.
Research and find additional information about Federal Call Recording Laws and learn what call recording procedures are legal in other states.
