It's my understanding that a bank will not pull funds like this for any organization without a court order. Has he received anything? Sadly, if there is an order for the garnishment, there's not going to be much he can do. I think it's ridiculous to do this to someone over that little of an amount of money. I know a man who owes about $60,000 and they haven't done anything to him. Drives me crazy.

My best advice would be to take out a loan, borrow from a friend, whatever it takes to just pay it off and get those people off his back. It might sting a bit, but in the long run, he will be so much more relieved.

Unfortunately it is completely legal, especially if the state turns the account over to a contractor to do support collections. Your friend must have received a notice way back when warning him that the law allowed the state to collect or seize the arrears but several means including seizing tax refund, unemployment benefits, social security and VA benefits. Mom may have had something to do with it but if the state found some money, they will collect, although I can't ever remember seeing a person owing $3K and being hunted down with so much vigor. Usually they wait until the arrears in in the five figures before they get nasty.