Getting a garnishment stopped without filing bankruptcy

[karna68]

Is this possible? Has anyone ever done it? I was going to file Chapter 13 but the payment would have been the same as if I was being garnished which doesn't really help. The law firm garnishing me, Javitch and Block are true vultures. They won't do any kind of payment plan at all.

[LadyInTheRed]

Since they are unwilling to take payments, unless you can pay off their judgment in full or get them to settle for less, I don't think there is anything you can do unless you have some basis on which to get the judgement set aside. A creditor doesn't have any incentive to take payments over garnishment once they have gotten a judgement and put the garnishment in place. But, they may be willing to settle for a smaller amount in order to get it paid off now instead of risking that you lose your job before the debt is paid off.

Have you checked the maximum that can be garnished in your state to make sure they are not taking a larger portionn of your pay check than allowed?

[karna68]

Thanks for your response. They are taking what they are allowed, 25%. I make decent money so they get a nice chunk every pay but it's really creating a hardship for me.

[joshuagraham]

It seems that the beauty of a garnishment is that it is easy to do, as the party setting it up (i.e., the employer) is a neutral party in the judgment, and indeed also legally compelled to honor the Court, and the party that is forking over the money (i.e., the garnishee) cannot get out of this without giving up his income source (i.e., his job). That said, the garnishee would be in a position such that getting a job with a different employer would be worth a lot more because the new paycheck would not be garnished.

[bcohen]

As other people have already alluded to, there are really only two ways to stop a garnishment. Either file for bankruptcy protection or change jobs frequently enough that a judgment creditor will not be able to find your new employer.

It should be noted that a consumer creditor has limited tools at its disposal for locating a debtor's employer, and if said debtor should resign and go elsewhere after seeing their paycheck garnished, it could easily take 6 months or more to locate the new employer. If a person happens to work in an industry where high turnover is expected and tolerated, then changing jobs to thwart garnishment makes sense. Also, if one never applies for credit, or for an apartment lease or anything else where credit reports are pulled, and never tells their old employer about the new job, then it will be that much harder for a judgment creditor to locate the new source of income.