Using Ex Parte Bank Attachments For Effective Debt Collection

Last updated on May 28, 2026

Freezing a debtor’s bank account directly and immediately impacts them, often more so than other types of attachments. A bank attachment on nonexempt assets provides an immediately liquid form of prejudgment security, so that when you win, there is a source for you to immediately recover money. Simply by hiring the aggressive and experienced Massachusetts collections attorneys at the Law Offices of Alan M. Cohen & Associates LLC, you can often initiate settlement discussions, even if an initial bank attachment doesn’t immediately catch any funds. We can also use bank attachments to help collect post-judgment debts. Call us at 508-763-6604.

Formally, a bank attachment is a type of trustee attachment. A trustee attachment targets funds or assets held by a third party for the benefit of your debtor. While bank accounts are the most common form, a trustee attachment is not limited to just bank accounts. Unlike a reach and apply injunction, assets subject to a bank or trustee attachment must be absolutely and unconditionally owed to the debtor.

Reasons To Make Copies Of Every Check From Your Customers

Understanding your debtor’s banking patterns is crucial for effective attachment. Here’s why keeping copies of every check from your customers is beneficial:

• Accounting verification: Ensures accurate records of transactions.
• Indicating continuous banking changes: Helps track potential shifts in banking relationships.
• Affording the collection attorney attachment targets: Provides critical information for our attorneys to identify potential bank accounts for attachment.

Once our collections attorneys identify your debtor’s last known bank, they can finalize the complaint – or if the complaint has been filed, seek to amend the complaint – to file a motion for a bank attachment.

The Power Of Ex Parte Bank Attachments

In some cases, these prejudgment attachments can be sought without notice, which is known as an ex parte bank attachment. Courts may permit an ex parte attachment when the facts demonstrate that your debtor is likely to remove or dissipate the asset in question if given prior notice. This is why ex parte attachments are such a useful debt collection tool: debtors are highly unlikely to leave money in their accounts if they are warned of an impending attachment. Through more than 60 years of experience, the Law Offices of Alan M. Cohen & Associates LLC has consistently found this to be true, and we strategically use the “trustee process” to attach your debtor’s account ex parte when appropriate and legally permissible.

The first thing you need to know about ex parte bank attachments or a trustee attachment, which can also be done with notice, is that the attachment does not automatically entitle you to the money in the account. Instead, it gives you prejudgment security by having the bank hold money aside for you after you win your case. By doing this, it will be ensured that after you win the battle, you will ultimately win the war and have control over your money.

Ex Parte Bank Attachment Success Story

In this scenario, a doctor had hired a lawyer to help him with the purchase of a high-tech company. The doctor then went on to make sporadic payments despite a promise to pay the attorney’s bill in full. With an outstanding balance of $80,000 built up, the good doctor became Dr. Deadbeat.

This attorney then consulted the experienced Massachusetts debt collection attorneys at the Law Offices of Alan M. Cohen & Associates LLC for help getting his money. Once we found out about his scenario, we immediately sued Dr. Deadbeat and got our motion for an ex parte bank attachment approved by the District Court. This attachment only collected a few hundred dollars, so we then sought and obtained a prejudgment real estate attachment on Dr. Deadbeat’s house. Dr. Deadbeat predictably did not file his answer within the court-mandated timeline. The very next day that we could, we filed with the district court a request for a default and default judgment.

Since he was a tenant by the entirety (meaning that he owned the property with his spouse), we could not sell the property, but we still got the prejudgment attachment. We then filed a complaint on the judgment in the Superior Court of Massachusetts. This led to a reach and apply injunction that prevented Dr. Deadbeat from receiving any money from his practice, with the court ordering him to pay his earnings to our client.

Two months went by, and we had not received a single check for Dr. Deadbeat’s court-ordered payments. To remedy this, we scheduled a deposition of his former secretary, who would know the most about his practice. She told us that he had been putting money from his practice into his wife’s account instead of to our client, to the tune of roughly $15,000.

In a last-ditch effort to cheat his client out of the money he owed, Dr. Deadbeat filed for bankruptcy. What he didn’t know was that thanks to our knowledge of the Massachusetts Bankruptcy Code, we were then able to have his home sold and reached and applied his share to pay his creditors – our client! This put Dr. Deadbeat into quite a hole.

Dr. Deadbeat’s lawyer then offered $10,000 to be paid immediately, with another $10,000 to be paid over the next five years. We rejected this offer. Thanks to attorney Cohen’s aggressive negotiations, Dr. Deadbeat finally agreed to cough up almost $70,000 within 60 days, proving the adage that one can run, but can’t hide!

Read another example of how we used an ex parte bank attachment as part of a strategy that led to us successfully collecting $300,000 in old debt for a client within 20 days.

Partner With Experienced Collection Attorneys

For innovative, aggressive and effective business debt collections from businesses subject to Massachusetts jurisdiction, including strategies involving bank attachments, trustee attachments, real estate attachments and reach and apply injunctions, contact the Law Offices of Alan M. Cohen & Associates LLC. Our time-tested experience with ex parte bank attachments can significantly work in your favor, helping you collect your money when others might fail.

From our office in Framingham, we serve Greater Boston and all of Massachusetts. Our comprehensive services range from collections on mechanic’s liens to post-judgment collections and everything in between. Contact our Massachusetts collections attorneys today at 508-763-6604 or reach us online.