How to Stop Wage Garnishment

When you owe someone an unpaid debt, your creditors can use the legal system to get some of their money back from you via your wages. A court order forces your employer to send a certain amount of money from your paycheck directly to the creditor, with the balance paid to you. If you anticipate wage garnishment in the future, you can take some measures that might make the payments less steep:

Prevention
The best method of stopping wage garnishment is never to allow it to get started. Communication with the creditor and establishing some sort of payback plan usually halts the process of collections before it gets to wage garnishment. Generally, wage garnishment is one of the last methods a creditor will try in making a collection. Once wage garnishment starts, there are only a few ways to end it.

Claim Of Exemption
If you can show that the garnishment is taking so much of your income that you cannot afford the basics of life, you can apply for a claim of exemption with the courts. Fill out the application, and file it with the court. You’ll have to appear before a judge and prove your claim. Submit mortgage or rent statements, utilities and groceries as evidence of what it costs for you to survive. If a judge agrees with you, she can overrule the garnishment or modify it to a smaller amount.

Pay It Off
While this may seem obvious, paying all or part of the unpaid debt you owe may put you in a better position to work with the creditor to lift the writ of garnishment. Contact the creditor, either yourself or employ an attorney specializing in wage garnishment help, and offer to pay a lump sum for part or most of the total debt. The condition should be that the garnishment must end when the lump sum is received. Always make sure that any official transactions are documented in writing.

Bankruptcy
Creditors cannot collect against you when you are in bankruptcy, so any writ of garnishment will be stopped while the court restructures your financial obligations. If you cannot work out an agreement with the creditor and you can’t get the garnishment set aside by a judge, this may be the last option left. A bankruptcy attorney can advise you in the proper steps to take in filing bankruptcy and getting the wage garnishments stopped.