Stop Wage Garnishment

If you live in Kentucky and find yourself in the unfortunate situation of having your wages garnished, it’s most likely because you’ve fallen behind on payments to a creditor or failed to pay child or spousal support. If you have not made regular payments, creditors in Kentucky can file a lawsuit against you and request that your earnings be garnished to recuperate lost cash.

If the Kentucky court agrees to the motion, a writ to garnish your earnings might be issued. In this situation, a Kentucky court will order your employer to deduct a specific sum from your monthly salary. There are various methods accessible to you if you want to stop wage garnishment in Kentucky.

Pay the Debt and Avoid the Suit

Paying up your debt is the best option to avoid the garnishment you’re facing in Kentucky. If a creditor has had to sue and seek a garnishment to collect money due to him, he likely explored other options first.

A creditor’s final resort is to file a lawsuit against you and get a judgment that allows them to garnish your wages. You can avoid garnishing your wages by paying up the bill before it gets to court.

The best course of action is to contact the creditor if you are unable to repay the debt or if making payments is onerous. Ignoring creditors usually causes more issues than it solves. Make contact with them and try to figure out a strategy that will benefit both of you.

Most creditors are prepared to deal with lenders if it means they will be paid eventually. If you pay up a debt within 10 days of the judgment being issued, the writ of garnishment against your salary will be nullified.

Respond to the Creditor’s Demand Letter

Many states require a creditor to send you one final warning letter before garnishment commences once a judgment has been secured against you. This is sometimes referred to as a “demand letter.” If your creditor sends you a demand letter, don’t disregard it.

Many creditors would rather receive voluntary payments from debtors than deal with the expense and time-consuming paperwork that garnishments entail. Use this time to work out a payment arrangement with your creditor before they start garnishing your wages.

Seek State-Specific Remedies

Some states provide extra safeguards against garnishment. In Ohio, for example, you can ask the court to appoint a trustee. You make payments to the trustee under trusteeship, and the trustee distributes those payments to your other creditors. A creditor cannot garnish your earnings while you are in a trusteeship.

You can file an exemption claim in California. If you can establish that you are experiencing financial difficulty and that your income is required to sustain your family, the garnishment may be reduced or eliminated.

To find out what alternatives are available in your state, contact the clerk of your municipal or county court or speak with our experienced wage garnishment attorney.

Get Debt Counseling

Stopping a garnishment may be possible with the aid of a consumer credit counseling firm (CCS). A credit counseling service is a non-profit organization that can assist you in negotiating and reaching an agreement with your creditors to pay them over time.

If your creditors agree to join this group payment plan, they will not be able to garnish your wages as long as you keep up with your payments.

Object to the Garnishment

If you do nothing after receiving the demand letter, you will almost certainly get copies of the garnishment order and notification of garnishment from your employer. Any objections to the garnishment should be filed in writing with the court, along with a request for a hearing.

You could find forms with the garnishment filings that you can fill out to request a hearing. Otherwise, you’ll have to finish and file anything on your own. The following are some of the more prevalent objections:

The Creditor is Taking Too Much Money

Your creditor is only allowed to garnish the lower of:

• 25% of your disposable earnings (gross pay fewer taxes and mandatory deductions)
• your disposable earnings are less than 30 times the federal minimum wage

If you’re being garnished for child support or alimony, you might lose up to 50 percent or 60 percent of your disposable income. Garnishments for student loan obligations and IRS taxes, for example, are calculated differently. Your state’s laws may impose even more restrictions.

If the amount requested to be garnished from your salary is greater than what is allowed by federal and state law, you should oppose the garnishment right away.

The Creditor Did Not Follow Proper Procedures

The court may terminate the garnishment order if the creditor does not follow the garnishment procedure. A creditor failing to provide timely notice of the garnishment is an example of improper garnishment.

The Creditor Was Paid

You must object if you have already paid the judgment or if the creditor has obtained full or partial payment toward the judgment through other methods (bank attachments, prior post-judgment voluntary payments, etc.).

Attend the Objection Hearing and Negotiate If Necessary

Following the filing of your objection, you must attend the hearing. If you make an objection but do not show up for the hearing, the court may override it and the garnishment will commence.

Even if you show up for the hearing and the court dismisses your objection, you can still meet with the creditor and work out a payment plan. If you can convince the creditor to agree, it might not be too late to halt the garnishment.

Appeal to the Court in Kentucky

In certain cases, the garnishment against a person is excessive, and as a result, the individual is unable to meet their necessities for food, shelter, and health care. You can seek an appeal with the court that issued the judgment that resulted in your garnishment if this happens.

You’ll need to submit an exemption claim in Kentucky’s judicial system. It’s simply an attempt to protect yourself against having your wages garnished, and courts in Kentucky and elsewhere recognize a person’s right to self-defense.

The forms you’ll need to seek exemption will be available in the Kentucky courts. Following the submission of your claim, you will be given a hearing date. It will be your obligation to submit proof to people attending the hearing that the wage garnishment is preventing you from meeting your basic living necessities.

This entails giving the court proof of monthly living expenditures and income, such as mortgage and rent payments, food costs, and healthcare costs, among other things.

Suppose the court thinks the garnishments are excessively severe and are preventing you from meeting your essential living needs. In that case, they can dismiss the original writ and issue a new one that garnishes a reduced sum each month.

Continue Negotiating

Even after a garnishment has begun, you might try to reach an agreement with the creditor, particularly if your circumstances change. If you obtain an income tax refund that might cover some of the judgment, for example, you might be able to persuade the creditor to drop the garnishment in exchange for a lump-sum payment to cover the balance of the debt.

Bankruptcy in Kentucky

For anybody filing in Kentucky or elsewhere with financial difficulties, bankruptcy should always be the last choice. It will have a long-term negative impact on your credit rating. If you must go to this extreme, go with caution.

On the flip side, filing Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 Bankruptcy results in an immediate “stay” that prevents all of your creditors, including Kentucky wage garnishments, from seeking to collect on your obligations.

Seek Legal Assistance

When your earnings are garnished due to outstanding unsecured obligations, such as credit cards, you may work out a new repayment plan, get the withholding amount reduced, or, if necessary, file for bankruptcy.

Some garnishments in Kentucky, on the other hand, are not related to debt and are instead related to unpaid taxes, spousal or child support, or the payment of criminal penalties.

In situations like these, it may be in your best interest to call our experienced wage garnishment attorney to see what we can do to assist you to stop the garnishment you are facing in Kentucky.