Stopping Wage Garnishment In Georgia

When your employer is served with a Georgia garnishment, it is extremely important that you take action as soon as you can. If you do nothing, the creditor is going to garnish up to 25 percent of your net paycheck.

Here is how the garnishment process process normally works in Georgia.  First, a creditor will file a lawsuit against you.  In most cases, the local Sheriff will drive up to your house and serve you with the court papers.  If you dispute the claim being made against you, you must defend yourself in court.  Otherwise, the creditor will obtain a default judgment against you.

Second, once they obtain the judgment, the creditor will then apply for the garnishment.  The court will then serve papers  on your employer.  The court papers will clearly state that your employer has 45 days to start taking money out of your paycheck or explain to the court that you no longer work there.  The employer will then send the money to the court that ordered the garnishment.  Once the money is received by the court, the court will forward the funds to the creditor.

Your garnishment could end up costing your employer a lot of money!

In Georgia, if your employer messes up the garnishment, they can be held liable to the creditor for the entire amount of the debt.  How happy is your employer going to be with you if they end up having to pay a large lump sum to the creditor?  When you file a Chapter 13, it not only protects you from collection, but it also protects your employer from messing up a garnishment as long as the bankruptcy filing is communicated to the creditor.

When you file Chapter 13 with my office, we will file a plea of stay with the court where your garnishment was filed. In addition, we will send a copy of the Employer Deduction Order, which has the bankruptcy judge’s signature on it, to your employer so that the garnishment will be stopped. If you bring us the fax number to your payroll department, this will help us notify your employer even faster. Chapter 7 also stops a creditor from garnishing your paycheck.