Receiving notice of a wage garnishment can be stressful. It can also cause a financial crisis if the garnishment does not leave you with sufficient funds to pay your living expenses and bills. Losing part of your income through wage garnishment can cause you to fall behind on other debts, including your mortgage and vehicle loan. Facing a wage garnishment in addition to debt problems can be overwhelming.
Our New Bedford wage garnishment lawyers at Logan A. Weinkauf, P.C., can help. We’ll explore your legal options to stop wage garnishment in Massachusetts. Contact our office to schedule a free consultation to discuss how to protect your income from wage garnishments.
What Is Wage Garnishment in Massachusetts?
Garnishment is the legal process of collecting a debt from someone through a third party that owes the person money or wages. A wage garnishment is a deduction from your paycheck for a debt you owe. Your employer is required to deduct an amount from your wages and send the amount to your creditor. Generally, creditors cannot garnish wages without a court order.
What Is the Process of Obtaining a Wage Garnishment Order in Massachusetts?
Before obtaining a wage garnishment order, the creditor must obtain a judgment against you for the debt. Typically, the creditor files a debt collection lawsuit seeking a judgment. The complaint must be served on you, and you have time to respond to the complaint. If you did not respond, the court likely entered a default judgment in favor of the creditor.
Now that the creditor has a judgment against you, they can file the paperwork with the court to obtain a wage garnishment order. Your employer receives a copy of the wage garnishment order. By law, your employer must deduct the amount in the order from your wages and send it to the creditor each pay period.
Some creditors do not need to sue you to garnish your wages. For example, your wages can be garnished without a judgment if you owe child support, alimony, or back taxes. The U.S. Department of Education can garnish wages for student loans without a judgment.
How Much Can a Creditor Take From My Income for a Wage Garnishment in Massachusetts?
Creditors cannot garnish an unlimited amount of your income. Federal and state laws limit the amount of wage garnishments.
Federal wage garnishment laws limit the amount a creditor can garnish your wages to the lesser of:
- 25% of your disposable income; or,
- The amount of your disposable income that exceeds 30 times the federal minimum wage
However, Massachusetts provides more protection from wage garnishment. Under Massachusetts state law limits the amount a creditor can garnish from your wages to the lesser of:
- 15% of your pre-tax income; or,
- Your disposable income is less than 50 times the state’s minimum hourly wage
The limits to wage garnishments do not apply if your wages are garnished for child support or alimony.
Federal law protects an employee from being fired or retaliated against by the employer for a wage garnishment. However, it only protects the employee for one creditor seeking wage garnishment. If you have more than one wage garnishment order, your employer might terminate employment if they view the wage garnishment requirements as too much work for them.
How Can I Stop Wage Garnishment in Massachusetts?
The best way to deal with wage garnishment is to stop it before it begins. Therefore, if you are served with a debt collection lawsuit, contact our New Bedford debt collection defense attorneys immediately. We can review your legal options for fighting the lawsuit, including challenging the legality of the debt.
If you receive a wage garnishment order, we can explore options to challenge the garnishment amount or apply for an exemption to lower or eliminate the wage garnishment. We can also discuss filing bankruptcy to stop a wage garnishment, which is often the most effective way to deal with garnishments.
Filing Bankruptcy to Stop Wage Garnishments in Massachusetts
Filing bankruptcy can prevent creditors from obtaining wage garnishment orders for judgments. It can also stop wage garnishments and discharge those debts when you complete your bankruptcy case.
The bankruptcy automatic stay prevents creditors from taking any actions to collect debts outside of the bankruptcy case. Therefore, creditors must stop wage garnishments when they receive notice of your bankruptcy filing. They must file a motion to modify the automatic stay with the bankruptcy court if they believe they have a legal right to resume garnishing your wages.
If your wages are being garnished for current alimony or child support payments, those garnishments continue. However, if you owe back child support and alimony, you might be able to include those debts in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan.
In some situations, you might be able to recover some or all of the wages garnished before you file bankruptcy. Generally, a debtor can recover wages garnished within 90 days before filing bankruptcy when the garnishment amount totals more than $600 and exemptions cover the garnished wages.
What Happens to the Debts Subject to Wage Garnishment After the Bankruptcy Case Ends?
In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, you do not have to pay the debt if the original debt is dischargeable. The creditor cannot resume wage garnishment after you receive your bankruptcy discharge. Dischargeable debts include most unsecured debts (i.e., credit cards, medical bills, etc.).
However, child support, alimony, most taxes, and student loans are not dischargeable. The creditor can resume wage garnishment after your Chapter 7 bankruptcy case closes.
If you file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case, the same discharge rules apply. However, you can include tax debts, child support, and alimony in a Chapter 13 plan as priority debts. Therefore, those debts will be paid through your Chapter 13 plan, so you will not owe those debts when you complete your Chapter 13 case.
The sooner you file bankruptcy, the sooner you can protect your income by stopping wage garnishments. You may also recover some or all of the garnished wages, which can help you pay your living expenses and necessary bills.
Contact Logan A. Weinkauf, P.C., to Learn More About Wage Garnishments in Massachusetts
Our New Bedford wage garnishment lawyers are here to help you figure out what to do when facing a wage garnishment. Garnishing your wages can make struggling to pay debts impossible. Call now for a free consultation with our New Bedford debt relief attorneys to discuss ways to stop wage garnishment in Massachusetts.