You have never had your bank account frozen/garnished have you....that "piece of paper" can do both very quickly
If you showed up at my bank with a court order from Japan they aren't going to touch my account. The second they improperly touch funds in my account they open themselves up to a lawsuit (and I'm sure their insurance company wouldn't like that). The only way they are going to freeze or garnish my account is if they are legally obligated to and court orders from other jurisdictions are not generally legally binding.
Posted by: darkmule
They wouldn't show up with a court order from Japan. They'd show up in court here with the foreign judgment, and depending on the jurisdiction, have the foreign judgment domesticated and enforced, obtaining an enforcement order from the local court. Then they would serve the bank with an order from the local court incorporating the judgment of the foreign court.
Japan is, of course, party to the treaties which allow this, and United States law has, itself, recognized the judgments of foreign courts both in common law and under statutory law passed pursuant to the mostly Twentieth Century treaties.
also you wouldn't even know they were at you bank, until you tried to use your funds, and they would be frozen. At that point how are you going to even fund a law suit or do anything...
the bank manger does not give a %^#% about you and will always obey a court order vs protect your account (kinda one of the stong points of BTC/CC ...when you think about it and Mt.Gox could have a lot stashed in BTC, though how they convert it when they are taken out is interesting)