This IS the process for doing those things. You get a default judgment (they did) then you try to collect the judgment. The debtor’s hearing is the process for collecting the information to do a garnishment - bank account numbers, job, assets, car title. This debt was 25 years old. That information has to be updated. Student loans are signature loans, and bank account information, job information has to be obtained before you can garnish. The courts just don’t go out and look for that information, the creditor has to submit all that information to get the order of garnishment. What account do you want to garnish from which bank, which job do you want to garnish? And student loans are made without regard to risk. If they were, a signature loan to an unemployed 18 year old would have a rate of about 36%, which is the old loan shark rate of 3% per month per year (which is the rate in many states for finance companies).