How Long Before A Creditor Can Garnish Wages?

How Many Days of Employment Is Allowed Before a Creditor Can Garnish Wages?

Should you have outstanding debts and have not paid them, your creditors might pursue recovery of their money against you. Wage garnishment is one of those choices; it lets your creditors get some of your earnings to cover your debt. But as we will see later, creditors cannot just steal your salary without considering any criteria. This page will go over all the procedures and timeframes of pay garnishment you should be aware of.

What Is Wage Garnishment?

When a creditor goes to court to request your employer to deduct a portion of your wages and pay the amount to the creditor, this is known as garnishment. Varied rules depend on the nature of debts but as a general rule federal law places restrictions on how much creditors can deduct from an employee’s wage.

The amount that most creditors can take is the lower of 25 percent of the disposable pay or the difference between the pay and 30 times the federal minimum wage. Some child support orders permit deductions as high as 65% of your disposable income. Some debts that cannot be garnished to the maximum are student loans, tax refunds to the Internal Revenue Service, and some other federal debts.

Creditors cannot just decide to garnish wages but have to follow the legal procedures provided in the law. They cannot simply make an order to your employer and ask for a portion of your paycheck.

When Can Creditors Start Wage Garnishment Proceedings?

Before garnishing your wages, creditors must first.

Obtain a court judgment against you for your unpaid debt: This formally acknowledges to the court that you are indebted to the creditor. Next, you will be served with a legal notice from the court demanding the outstanding balance.
Send a written notice letting you know they intend to start garnishment proceedings: Once a creditor has received a judgment against you, he has to serve you with a particular notice informing you he will garnish your wages if you do not pay or come to a different agreement.
Wait a period of 15 to 60 days after judgment: Creditors are legally required to wait a few days after obtaining a judgment to file the garnishment order. The time that the parties are required to wait differs with the state laws.
File a wage garnishment order with the court: The creditor attorney then drafts a legal letter of demand of garnishment of wages that states where the employer should be approached to begin receiving wages to pay the debtor.
Serve the garnishment order on your employer: Once the court has entered the order, it is forwarded to your employer, together with the instructions for the deduction of wages and remitting the money to your creditor.

What is the extent of time that can be taken to complete this whole process?

As a rule, several weeks may elapse from the time you have failed to make payments to a creditor up to the time when they start deducting part of your wages. However, if you get a notice that a creditor has sued you or has obtained a judgment against you, be prepared to have your wages garnished within 60 days or even less depending on your state. Employer notices must be given within a few pay periods following the wage garnishment order.

Of course, how long you have depends on state laws and your specific situation. In the worst case, your creditors could quickly transition from obtaining a judgment against you and subsequently delivering a wage garnishment order to your employer. It is always advisable to act immediately after receiving any legal notices, as it may give a chance to attempt to negotiate with the creditors or consider other possibilities of avoiding wage garnishment.

What Shall You Do to Prevent Wage Garnishment?

Here are some options if you receive legal notices about judgments or wage garnishment threats from creditors.

Clear your debts - If possible, clear all your account balances or balances of judgments to make your creditors leave you alone. If you are unable to pay it all now, suggest to them some form of payment option.
Inquire with creditors about removing garnishments – Some of the creditors will be willing to remove garnish from your account in return for regular monthly payments. They want to get paid and will be perfectly willing to take whatever amount you can offer to save them (and you) the expense and formality of garnishment proceedings.
Settle for less amount to pay – The majority of the creditors, especially those who buy debt from the original creditor or the debt collection agencies, would accept less amount of money as the payoff balance to clear the debts. Ethical collectors will accept not to pursue collection such as legal judgments as well as garnishment orders as a form of settlement.
File for bankruptcy protection – The last resort here is to file for personal bankruptcy because it prevents almost all garnishment orders due to the legal discharge of the debts. However, it has severe long-term consequences on your creditworthiness.

You are most vulnerable when the creditor goes through the whole process of wage garnishment procedures. This means that they will use their time and money on the matter, so if you negotiate with creditors before they manage to get court judgments, creditors will be motivated to cooperate with you. Being aware of the schedule that they have set, you can do something before they instigate employers to deduct your wages.

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