Garnishment

A garnishment is a means of collecting a monetary judgment against a defendant by ordering a third party (the garnishee) to pay money, otherwise owed to the defendant, directly to the plaintiff.


Wage garnishment

Wage garnishment, the most common type of garnishment, is the process of deducting money from an employee's monetary compensation (including salary) as a result of a court order. In the United States, such payments are limited by federal law to 25 percent of the disposable income that the employee earns. Garnishments can be taken for any type of debt but common examples of debt that result in garnishments include:

• child support
• taxes
• unpaid court fines
• any other type of money judgment

When served on an employer, garnishments are taken as part of the payroll process. When processing payroll, sometimes there is not enough money in the employee's net pay to satisfy all of the garnishments. In such a case, the correct order to take a garnishment must be satisfied. For example, in a case with federal tax, local tax, and credit card garnishments, the first garnishment taken would be the federal tax garnishments, then the local tax garnishments, and finally, garnishments for the credit card.

At present four U.S. states — North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas — do not allow wage garnishment at all except for debts related to taxes, child support, federally guaranteed student loans, and court-ordered fines or restitution for a crime the debtor committed. Several other states observe maximum thresholds that are lower than the 25 percent maximum provided by federal law. States may also prohibit garnishment altogether in certain circumstances. For example, in Florida the wages of a person who provides more than half the support for a child or other dependent are exempt from garnishment altogether (though this exemption is subject to waiver).


Attachment

The other type of garnishment, also known as attachment, (or attachment of earnings), requires the garnishee to deliver all the defendant's money and/or property in the hands of the garnishee at the time of service of process to the court, to be paid over to the plaintiff. Since this type of garnishment is not continuing in nature, but is not subject to the type of restrictions that apply to wage garnishment, it is most often used against banks, or other persons or companies that incur liquidated obligations in the regular course of business.


IRS rules

There are only a few requirements that must be met before the IRS starts a wage garnishment:

• The IRS must have assessed the tax and sent a Notice and Demand for Payment;
• The taxpayer must have neglected or refused to pay the tax; and,
• The IRS must have sent a Final Notice of Intent to Levy and Notice of Your Right to A Hearing (levy notice) at least 30 days before the levy.

The IRS can serve the Final Notice in person, leave it at the taxpayer’s home or usual place of business, or send it to the last known address by certified or registered mail. It is important to note that the IRS is only required to send the Final Notice to the last address known to it. The taxpayer does not need to actually receive the notice for it to be effective. Many taxpayers never actually receive the final notice. Those taxpayers may not realize they are in danger of receiving a levy until their wages are actually garnished.

I am a single mother of 4, working 2 jobs trying to make ends meet, and do not receive any child support due to the fact that the courts can not legally make my ex-husband pay child support because he is on SSI. I defaulted on a student loan last year and didn't know about it until they started garnishing my wages about 7 months ago. I had applied for another forbearance several months before, like I had in the past, because I am on state assistance and never heard back that they needed anything, or that it was denied, so I had assumed that everything was good. After the wage garnishment started I called and I was told that they never received the forbearance form, but that it was too late now because I had defaulted. It has been extremely hard this past year because they are not only taking $300 a month from me, but because state assistance goes by your gross income, not your net, I am receiving less assistance because even though I never see that $300 they count it as income. I have had two 3 day eviction notices on my door in the past 6 months, electric almost shut off just about every month, water almost shut off twice, have no home phone, internet, cable, or anything else because I can not afford it. I barely get to see my kids because I work about 70 hours a week, which is not fair to them or me. I have mailed in leters to the Dept. of Education asking them to stop garnishing my wages, along with copies of my state assistance papers, overdue bills, eviction notices, late notices, etc. 3 times and have not heard anything. I have called and they told me that everything has to be in writing they can not talk to me about it over the phone. Now I am seeing in your post that if you live in Florida, which I do, they can not garnish your wages at all if you provide more than half of the support for a child. I provide 100% support for 4!
What can I do about this. I don't have money for an attorney, nor do I have much time to write another letter to them and gather copies of everything again. I need to get this to stop. Especially now that it's time to file taxes. I really need my tax return and EIC money and I called the hotline to see if they have applied to take my tax return, and they have. So I can't file until this is resolved.
PLEASE HELP!

I am not sure about the "no--garnishment" if you provide support but it is worth copying those letters and sending several times and reactivating the forbearance--that can still be done.

Also your state representative or congressional office can also assist.

If all else fails email world law and ask if they can do it is part of their pro-bono efforts. They do take hundreds of such issues every year for free in low-income situations.

I see that even though I first posted this as a reply to "Law Wiki's" definition of Garnishment it did not post as a reply to it. That is where I got the info on the "no garnisment" in Florida. So if that is true than they are violating the law by garnishing my wages. I was unaware taht they do pro bono work. How and who do I contact about that?

Email them on the worldlawdirect home page.

[Abel]

What qualifies for bankruptcy?

Do not keep any money in a bank account.

Check your state exemption laws--you get to keep a certain minimum without garnishment.

Consider moving to a state like Texas or Florida where garnishment is not allowed generally.

Also bankruptcy may help although student loans are not dischargeable unless you can show hardship--which maybe you can.