What exactly is Wage Garnishment?

Wage garnishment Is a legal process in which a part of an employee or the debtor’s salary is held back by their employer to pay their debts to their creditors or the debtee. Wage Garnishment is usually only used when a debtor is way behind on their debts because it is a fairly severe repercussion.

Wage Garnishment Judgement

The creditor must first prove that the debtor owes money to the creditors and that they failed to make the payments of the said debts. If the court is convinced, it will issue a judgment. A judgment is a piece of document that a particular court issues declaring that the creditor has won a lawsuit and is authorized to collect a certain amount of money.

Administrative Wage Garnishment

There are instances where a creditor might garnish a debtor’s wages without getting a judgment first. These particular types of garnishments are called administrative wage garnishments. By law, spousal and child support should be collected through wage garnishment even if an individual has agreed to support them voluntarily. Other types of debts that could be collected through administrative wage garnishments are back taxes and federal student loans.

Limits (Salary)

There only is a certain limit on how much money can be collected through wage garnishments. For debts, creditors can only take up to 25% of the debtor’s wages through garnishments. Meanwhile, child support is collected through Income Withholding Order. In this type of wage garnishment, up to 50% of the wages could be collected and up to 60% if past-due child support is included.

How does Wage Garnishment work?

No matter how much a debtor is in debt or how far behind debtors are, the creditor still has to schedule a hearing; this also requires the debtor to be notified about the hearing’s specifics, namely the date and time it is going to proceed.

The process starts when the creditor (the individual or the institution who is owed the money) decides to get a court order for the debtor to pay a certain amount of money; the garnishment can be used to gather the money owed to the creditor by the judgment.

A Garnishment is a legal notice to someone, which could be an individual or an institution, holding the debtor’s money calling for them to take a specific amount of money from the debtor’s salary or account for them to pay it to the creditor or the individual you owe. The employer or institution holding the debtor’s money usually has to notify the debtor in question that the wage garnishment is about to begin before proceeding to hand over the money to the creditor. The process of wage garnishment usually continues until all of the debt is paid off. The debtor is also allowed to file an objection to the garnishment to court or request a payment plan to stop the garnishment from the debtor’s salary.

What do Wage Garnishment Lawyers do?

If you are having a hard time keeping up with life because of your reduced income from wage garnishments or a threat of it, you might need to come in for some legal advice. Just like any situation, you don’t have to face this alone. A seasoned lawyer might be able to reduce or even eliminate ongoing wage garnishments. The sooner you seek legal help, the less burden you’ll have to suffer due to wage garnishments.

Negotiating a settlement could be possible even without the help of a legal consultant, but people do not understand how to get into it. But with a wage garnishment lawyer, your circumstances might just significantly improve. Additionally, they can help create a better outcome with a creditor in the form of a settlement.

A wage garnishment lawyer provides services to legal cases regarding garnishments. The service a debtor needs highly depends on the specific situation of the debtor. These could either be bankruptcy lawyers or debt settlement lawyers.

Entirely Avoiding Garnishments

If a debtor was sued for defaulting — not paying bills could lead to a dip in the debtor’s credit score and a negative notation on their credit history; a wage garnishment lawyer will help debtors understand how to defend their case. If their income has available exemptions, the lawyer could block any garnishment of the income. Additionally, wage garnishment lawyers can help debtors file answers to the complaints of the creditor in question. If the debtors lose their case, a seasoned lawyer can help them reduce or even eliminate the specific amount that the debtors owe the creditors. The wage garnishment lawyer will review all the agreements and correspondence with the creditors; here, the lawyers can spot fraud, evidence of identity theft, and any violations of statutes of limitations that could help the debtor’s case. A consumer lawyer will guarantee that the creditor has followed and will always follow significant laws such as the FDCPA or the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which forbids collection tactics that would fall into harassment. In most cases, lawyers will offer debtors a free legal consultation to determine which best course of action would be the best to go into.

Debt Relief Operations

Wage Garnishment Lawyers can help sort through a debtor’s debt relief operations. Before a creditor can garnish a debtor’s income, they first have to get a judgment; this excludes debts from specific agencies such as child support agencies and the IRS — Internal Revenue Service. A way to avoid court is to settle the case with the creditor and negotiate a debt settlement plan even before the case goes to trial or, even better, reach a settlement before the creditor files a lawsuit. In the case that the debtor loses their case and their salary gets garnished, a great lawyer will always ensure that the creditors won’t take more than what they could legally take from the debtor’s income. The maximum amount that a creditor can garnish will be calculated transparently by the lawyer.

Bankruptcy Process

If bankruptcy is the best possible solution to manage all the debts that a debtor has incurred, a bankruptcy lawyer will help them understand the process and help them go through it. If the situation falls under Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the process could take anywhere between four to six months, which is a relatively quick process. But in most tax cases, which are non-dischargeable debts, Chapter 13 bankruptcy is a more fitting process. This process involves a payment plan which could last anywhere from thirty-six to sixty months. This is a good option if the debtor’s case won’t fall under Chapter 7. Nonetheless, a bankruptcy lawyer will help you choose whatever chapter to proceed into that best suits your needs.

Coast One Tax Group

If you are looking to get any of your tax-related situations sorted, Coast One Tax Group offers services to people like you. They handle cases seeking to reduce their tax liabilities and resolve any tax matters with the IRS and State Taxing Agencies. Their services include; Tax resolution, Tax preparation, Tax negotiation, Tax lien withdrawal, Tax audit representation, and other tax-related concerns. They have been one of the top-rated tax relief companies since 2008. Do not hesitate to reach out to them and visit their website for more information or further inquiries.