Law Office of Rick Morin, PC

Bankruptcy can stop and eliminate wage garnishments. This is one of the top reasons people call my office for bankruptcy relief.

A wage garnishment is a process by which a creditor can take money from your paycheck. In California, a typical judgement creditor can take up to 25% of your gross wages each paycheck. This can be devastating to a person’s financial situation.

Before a garnishment can start, a creditor must first obtain a money judgement. To obtain a judgement, a creditor must first sue you.

Many of my clients were sued by a creditor but had no idea they were being sued. This can happen when a person moves and the creditor serves a prior address with the lawsuit. This means that the first notification of the lawsuit is a letter or phone call from your employer saying that your wages are about to be garnished.

Don’t ignore a notice of garnishment from your employer. If you take swift action, we can stop your garnishment and make sure that your paycheck is not affected at all.

Filing bankruptcy immediately stops all collection activity. This is known as the “automatic stay.” Federal law is clear that creditors are not allowed to continue collecting money from a person in bankruptcy.

After my office files a bankruptcy, we reach out to all parties that have pending collection activity against a client. This includes wage garnishment situations. We will notify the County Sheriff’s office, the lower court that issued the judgement, along with a client’s employer. These steps are critical to stopping a garnishment before money is taken from your paycheck.

Bankruptcy is one of the best tools that can be used to stop a garnishment from wrecking your finances. Done quickly and correctly, bankruptcy will help preserve your paycheck and will eliminate unsecured money judgements.

Please call me at the office at (916) 333-2222 if you have any more questions about stopping a wage garnishment in Sacramento.