Garnishment Lawyer: Wage Garnishment

As an experienced wage garnishment lawyer, Diwan Law can guide your case through the garnishment process.

What is a wage garnishment?

Garnishment is a legal method by which a creditor may recoup a debt owed by an individual or company.

After a creditor, such as a credit card company, obtains a judgment against a customer, the debt collector can initiate a separate lawsuit against a third party [“the garnishee”] that owes money or property to the individual.

The garnishee in a wage garnishment is usually an employer.

Note: Recent changes to the garnishment statute allow creditors to file continuing garnishments against not only a judgment debtor’s employer, but also against a person or entity “under periodic obligations for payment” to the judgment debtor/defendant. This expands the garnishee target list for collection to better fit the current “gig” economy.

Once served with the garnishment action, the garnishee must retain a portion of the employee’s earnings each paycheck to satisfy the garnishment.

Under Georgia law, a garnishee can only withhold up to twenty-five percent of the employee’s disposable earnings for that week.

Until recently, wage garnishment actions had a relatively short shelf life in that garnishees were only obligated to withhold the earnings from each of the employee’s paychecks for a total period of 179 days [roughly 6 months]. A recent amendment to the garnishment statute expanded that time period to 1,095 days (3 years).

Wage Garnishment Defenses

Both federal and Georgia laws govern garnishment actions and protect consumers from excessive withholdings.

An experienced wage garnishment defense attorney can assert several defenses on behalf of a customer. The most common defenses are:

• The judgment has expired;
• Federal and Georgia law exempts the funds from wage garnishment;
• The judgment was satisfied [paid];
• The consumer filed for chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy;
• The plaintiff failed to follow proper procedure in the garnishment action.

Diwan law can guide your case through the garnishment process and be your lawyer to stop the garnishment.

Contact Diwan Law, your wage garnishment lawyer, at 404.635.6883 to discuss your case today.