How an Attorney Can Help: Wage Garnishment

Experienced Attorney

Wage garnishment can have a huge impact on a person’s life. Taking away a chunk of someone’s earnings can be the difference between whether they are able to pay for a roof over their head, groceries or afford medical care. An attorney understands that seizure of your money from paychecks or other means, can be detrimental to your finances. If you are struggling due to wage garnishment, please contact a law firm so we can help protect your earnings and rights.

How Wage Garnishment Starts

In order for wage garnishment to happen, a creditor, agency or other party must file a request to the courts to approve the forced collection. When approved, the garnishment may occur within 5-30 days afterwards. Then, the individual receives notice via mail about the upcoming garnishment. As soon as you get this notice, it is crucial that you consult with an attorney promptly. Depending on your situation, we may be able to halt or lessen the wage garnishment.

Protecting Your Rights

If stopping the wage garnishment is not possible, then we will do what we can to protect your rights. For example, do let us know if you did not receive notice of the wage garnishment in the first place, or feel like the amount being taken is way more than necessary. We can see that the amount being garnished does not break any state laws, as there may be regulations for how much can be taken out at once.

Employer Responsibility

Once your employer is informed about the wage garnishment, they must abide by these court orders. It can be embarrassing for the employee to have their boss find out about such a delicate financial matter. An employee may even secretly worry about losing his or her job. If you have only one wage garnishment impacting your paychecks, you may be protected legally from being let go. However, if you accumulate more than that, you may not be as protected. An attorney can talk with you further about this, in case you are worried about your employer’s response.

Wage and Non Wage Garnishment

There are a couple types of garnishment, that includes both wage and non wages. Wage garnishment happens when a portion of the worker’s paycheck is withheld due to a court order, in which the employer cannot refuse. Non wage garnishment is when a person’s income is seized through other means besides paychecks, such as directly from bank accounts, or taking a portion from a state tax refund. Please let us know if you are experiencing both wage and non wage garnishment.

The best Glendale workers compensation lawyers can fight to protect your rights and finances if you believe the wages being garnished are unfair or unlawful. They understand that you may be in a huge financial crisis due to the garnishment and can offer advice on what to do next.

Thank you to our friends and contributors at Hickey & Turim, SC for their insight into workers comp and wage garnishment.