When Are Garnishments Stopped?

By garnishing wages, your creditors can collect on your unpaid debts. If you default or stop paying a creditor, he may be able to sue you, win a court judgment and then use the judgment to have what you owe taken directly out of your wages or your bank account. Usually this continues until you've paid off the debt, but there are alternative solutions.

Garnishment

Most creditors have to wait on a court order before they can take your wages. Once a judge authorizes the garnishment, creditors can garnish up to 25 percent of your disposable earnings, which is what's left of your paycheck after mandatory deductions. The 25 percent is the maximum of all garnishments, no matter how many creditors win a judgment. The exception is child support, which can garnish as much as 60 percent of your salary.

Exemption

You may be able to stop the garnishment by filing an exemption claim with the court. In Florida, for example, you can claim an exemption if you support a child or other dependent on less than $500 a week. You can also receive an exemption if your live on veteran's benefits or Social Security, which cannot be garnished. Depending on state law, you may be able to stop garnishment by showing that it leaves you without the money to cover basic living expenses.

Bankruptcy

If you file bankruptcy, it triggers an automatic stay that stops your creditors' efforts to collect from you. If a creditor has already garnished your wages, the garnishment stops, and attempts to get a judgment against you must stop, too, unless it's for child support or alimony. If you discharge the debt in bankruptcy, the garnishment disappears, too. Bankruptcy can't discharge child support payments, alimony debts or most back taxes, so once you emerge from bankruptcy, garnishment for such debts could resume.

Considerations

Some states offer other alternatives to garnishment. In Ohio, for example, you can pay your creditor by going through a municipal clerk of court, a proceeding called municipal trusteeship. This won't save you any money, but if you apply for the trusteeship before the garnishment starts, your employer will never have to know anything about your debts. The simplest way to stop garnishment, if you can afford it, is to find a way to pay off the debt in one lump payment, eliminating the need to take money out of your wages.