How to Protect a Pay Check From Garnishment in Georgia

In Georgia, creditors may take up to 25 percent of your post-tax earnings to recover past-due debts. Garnishment is a procedure that creditors can use to force you to pay for your past-due debts. Like most states, Georgia permits creditors that follow proper legal procedures to execute wage garnishment orders against nonpaying debtors. In most cases, the creditor must file a lawsuit in a county magistrate court and obtain a judgment against you before it can garnish your paycheck.

Instructions

1

Contact your creditor as soon as you realize you will not be able to make your debt payment. Staying in contact with your creditor can help demonstrate that you are willing to repay your debt, even if you are experiencing temporary financial difficulties. Your lender may be willing to change your due date or provide a temporary forbearance to prevent your account from becoming delinquent.

2

Use a credit counseling service to negotiate with your creditor if your creditor is not willing to negotiate with you directly. A credit counseling service can work with your creditor to lower or eliminate interest, waive late fees and suspend collection efforts to help you bring your account current and pay off your debt.

3

Negotiate a settlement with your creditor. If you are behind on your payments, the creditor may accept less than the full balance as payment in full. A debt settlement can save the creditor the expense of pursuing a judgment and executing a wage garnishment, and provides the certainty of receiving a portion of the account balance as payment.

4

Answer the summons issued by the Georgia magistrate court by challenging the validity of the lawsuit. If you can show that the four-year Georgia statute of limitations has expired on your debt, or that the creditor did not serve proper notice of the suit pursuant to Georgia law, the court may dismiss the lawsuit. A Georgia attorney can help you challenge the lawsuit to avoid judgment and wage garnishment.

5

Hire a Georgia attorney to help you challenge the garnishment order if the creditor has already obtained a judgment. You may be able to avoid garnishment if the creditor has filed the order outside of the Georgia statute of limitations, your earnings are already subject to other garnishments or you have little nonexempt disposable income.

6

File bankruptcy if no other alternative is available. Once you file for bankruptcy protection, most creditors cannot pursue a judgment or wage garnishment to collect the debt. If the creditor has already filed a lawsuit against you, bankruptcy will typically halt judgment proceedings.