Stop Garnishment

How do you stop garnishment from a debt collector who has threatened to take money from your wages if you refuse to pay?

A wage garnishment means that the money is being removed from your check before you even see it. The garnished amount is then sent to the creditor.

Why Creditors Hate Wage Garnishments

Many times when a debt collector is attempting to collect money from you, he will threaten to garnish your paycheck. Most of the time this is an empty threat as a collector cannot implement wage garnishment on his own. Before he can do this, he must first sue you and take your to court which most don't want to do except as a last step.

And even when he gets you to court, there's no guarantee that the judge will rule that your salary be garnished. Given the choice, debt collectors don't like to spend time in court. Most are paid in commissions. And they'd much rather spend their time on the phone threatening you and collecting money than arguing their case in court.

How To Stop Garnishment

The best way to stop garnishment of your wages is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Once it's begun, it's harder to remove.

A wage garnishment usually involves three parties - the debtor, the creditor, and the employer. The employer is referred to as the garnishee. The sole reason that the employer is involved in the suit is because it is the entity that will eventually be forced to take the money from the employees paycheck and send it to the creditor.

The rules to stop wage garnishment vary depending on which jurisdiction you are in. Usually, the first thing you should do is to contact the court clerk in the district in which you were sued. They can give you specific instructions as to how to stop garnishment on your pay check.

Normally, if the judge has ruled that your paycheck can be garnished, you have a period of time in which to pay the full amount before the garnishment actually begins. If you pay the full amount during this period, and show proof to the court, you can have the garnishment stopped.

Stopping Garnishment After It's Already Begun

If the garnishment has already begun, you can normally stop it by paying the full amount to the Count Clerk's office or whichever entity is empowered to accept garnishment payments in your court district. The clerk will give you a receipt. When you present the receipt to your employer, based on the court agreement, he should stop garnishment on your paycheck right away.

An alternative way to stop garnishment on your wages is to file what is called a slow pay motion. Not all states have this, but in the ones that do it normally involves the debtor filing a motion with the judge to allow you to pay the debt owed in installment payments instead of having the full garnishment amount taken from his check.

The slow pay motions is filed after the judge has determined that you owe money but before the garnishment has actually begun. If you miss one of the installment payments, then the garnishment take effect. If the garnishment has already started, and the judge agrees to grant you the slow pay motion, the garnishment will be halted.

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