Wage Garnishment Judgement

Lately, I went to one of my uncle's place and found him with one his friends in a serious discussion. I didn't interfere and went in to meet my aunt. After sometime, my uncle came in and he was very grim and worried. We both asked him what was the matter. We got to know that his friend was facing a wage garnishment judgement. My uncle is a legal expert and his friend had come for some dire legal advice. Curious, I asked him what is wage garnishment and what is this judgement all about. For those who are not into monetary law and stuff like that, here is a brief overview of what I deciphered of his legal tattle.

Garnishment
Let's start off with decoding what is a garnishment, before moving on to a wage garnishment. Garnishment is a process through which a monetary judgement against a defendant is collected. This is done by giving a court order to the garnishee or the third party for a payback that is primarily owed to the defendant, directly to the complainant. This could be really tricky, as the federal law of a jurisdiction allows for collection, sans any court order. In short and simple terms, a person is asked through a legal channel to pay back a debt, any taxes or pending payments.

Wage Garnishment Judgement
In the Federal Law, amongst garnishments, wage garnishment is the most common type. So, wage garnishment judgement entails the procedure of withholding an amount or deducting an amount from an employee's salary because of a court order. This is called the 'Writ of Garnishment'. Some of these garnishments have a federal restriction that only 25 % of the disposable income of an individual is liable for deduction. This garnishment lasts till the person pays back the entire amount. Normally any type of debt qualifies for a wage garnishment, but the most common debts where garnishment is ordered are -

• Defaulted student loans
• Taxes
• Unpaid court fines
• Child support
• Any other type of monetary judgment

Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, and Texas do not permit wage garnishments barring the exceptions of child support, debts related to taxes, federally guaranteed student loans, court-ordered fines or restitution for a crime the debtor committed. Read more on rules for wage garnishment.

There are cases where the person has to pay multiple debts at multiple levels and does not have enough money to satisfy all the garnishments. Then, in that case, the priority should be decided based on the level of taxes. For instance, if a person has a federal, local and a credit card garnishment, the first would obviously be the federal garnishment and the others would follow. Consequently the employers get a legal notice to hold back a certain amount of the particular employee's salary for payback and garnishing wage cannot be refused by the concerned person.

Attachment or Attachment of Earnings
This is also a type of garnishment, akin to wage garnishment. This is a civil litigation, where a defendant's wages are held as payment for debt, ensuing from a court order. However, the difference between wage garnishment and attachment is that attachment is not liable to stringent restrictions as wage garnishment is. It is mainly used against banks or individuals or firms, which get liquidated obligations in the routine business course. This applies to the time following the pay period and not before that.

Federal Restrictions and Requirements For Wage Garnishments
Before the Federal Internal Revenue Services (IRS) commences or announces a wage garnishment, here are a few things that should be considered under the US Federal Tax Rules.

1. The debtor or taxpayer should have refused or ignored the payment of tax within the stipulated time.
2. The IRS should have thoroughly assessed the tax and should have sent a written notice and demand for payment.
3. A garnishment is a kind of levy, so no court order is needed. However, the IRS must send a final 'Notice of Intent to Levy' and 'Notice of Your Right to a Hearing', a minimum of 30 days prior to the levy.

Employee's Rights and Wage Garnishment
The Federal Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA) lays down the employee's rights and the details of circumstances where the wage garnishment applies. The title 3 or chapter 3 of this act is applicable to all employers and individuals receiving earnings on account of personal services, comprising salaries, wages, bonuses, pensions and so on. The rights of the employees, according to this act include -

1. A minimum partial compensation for the personal services they cater to, in spite of the wage garnishment.
2. An employer is not allowed to discharge an employee legally because of that person's indebtedness, leading to garnishment of wages.
3. This chapter 3 covers the employees by laying a rule that limits the amount of disposable earnings liable to garnishment in any pay period to less than 25%.
4. If these laws or rights are violated by the employer, then the employer will need to pay back the wages, reinstate the employee if he or she is discharged, and restore the unlawfully garnished amount by him. Read more on wage garnishment rights.

However, these restrictions are null and void in case of bankruptcy court orders and debts to be paid for federal and state taxes. All these things - the garnishments and the whole procedure and stopping wage garnishments under this chapter 3 are enforced and administered by the Wage and Hour Division of the Employment Standards Administration.

You can also go through the following articles:

• Dealing with Wage Garnishment
• How to Stop a Wage Garnishment

There is a lot more on wage garnishment judgement, but it would be better to avoid those legal intricacies. What matters is the fact that it is better to avoid being under any sort of debt. Because you do not want creditors harassing you and threatening you with wage garnishment. The best way is to avoid wage garnishment.

Ensure that your fiscal health is perfect and do not let the bug of wage garnishment bite it! I sign off here!