My question involves judgment recovery in the State of: New York City
in 2007 i told my landlord i was taking her to court to get my security deposit because she did not want to give me the deposit back. I gave her almost 2 months notice. I was ill and had taken too many days off from work already so i decided not to pursue it. two months later i received a notice that the landlord took me to court and said that i owed her rent even though i was not in apt. i had to postpone first appt because i was in the hospital. when i got to court, they called us up and the court officer came with her papers and i told her i wanted my security deposit back and then the landlord came over and said we could work this out. the court officer told me to sign these papers and i did and then we the officer took us to a room and asked if we were working this out ourselves and we said yes. i told landlord she could keep security deposit. the landlord said ok. she saw i was ill and said she would take care of everything. we told the court officer that we were handling it ourselves and then we left. just last week my job was served for a judgement on me for garnishment. on the judgement it said that i owed rent for 6 months after i left apt. i have rent receipts, uhaul receipts, letter from neighbor who gave her our key (per landlords instructions), and my new lease for new apt that shows we were not there at the time stated. even if they only take 25% from my paycheck, me and my kids will wind up in a shelter and i will not even have money to go to work. I cant believe how stupid i was and my only excuse is that i was so sick and could not think straight. what can i do so that this woman does not destroy my life.