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Staying Out of Trouble by Familiarizing Yourself With Wage Garnishment Information

life than to find that 15 to 25% of one’s disposable paycheck has been apportioned by court order in order to pay an outstanding debt. This debt can usually be dating back many years. As is expected, this can cause a tremendous amount of consternation and stress. It is therefore important, if one lives in a state where wage garnishment is legally permissible, to familiarise oneself with the process, especially if they owe back taxes or child support ( or both).Usually if you do owe, then a creditor can approach the courts and demand that your wages be withheld until the debt is satisfied.

Be in the know

While there is more than reason why one’s wages may be garnished, the predominant reasons are failing to pay income tax and child support. These are also the two that are easiest to default for reasons that are partially obvious. In the event that the IRS cannot find you, and you are declining to respond to the flurry of legal notices sent to the last known address they have on file, the final move is usually to secure a court order to nip part of your wages to pay off the debt. This may also include all the accrued interest and fees incurred by the government agency in filing with the courts. As dreadful as this practice is, it is not practiced in all the 50 states in the United States. Four states have voted to abstrain from using the practice. These are Texas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina. In these states, courts can still process lawsuits against debtors but the creditor is not authorized to touch a debtor’s wages.

Legal Issues

As inconveniencing as garnishment is, it is tightly regulated by laws. Creditors cannot simply commence on garnishment procedures arbitrarily. They must first prove to the courts that there was an honest attempt to collect the debt using peaceful non-threatening ways. They must also show that they attempted to contact the debtor but without much success or that the debtor was deliberately evading paying the debt. It is after this that the court can order one’s wages to be garnished.