Appellate Practice Attorney serving New York, NY
You say that judgment was "placed" against you. A judgment can't just be "placed" against you unless you have been sued and either lost on the merits or defaulted, or, in rare circumstances, unless you agreed in advance to a confession of judgment (which might be called something else in Pennsylvania), in which case you would still have the opportunity to try to have the judgment vacated. Thus, even if there was something improper about the last judgment, you may be barred from challenging it now if you had the opportunity to fight it earlier and failed.
It is improper for a plaintiff, who has already obtained a judgment, to sue on the same claim and obtain another judgment (two law firms has nothing to do with anything.) However, you don't indicate the basis of the second judgment - was it a new judgment on the same claim (improper unless the first judgment had been vacated for some reason), or did it simply reflect further proceedings on the original judgment. For example, if the original judgment was in New York, and the judgment creditor simply filed that judgment in Pennsylvania (with a higher amount because of interest accruing on the judgment), there would be nothing improper about that.
Answered on Aug 06th, 2014 at 2:52 PM