When you can't afford to pay a medical bill you run the risk of having a lawsuit filed against you by the medical facility. When this happens, the hospital could eventually get an order to garnish your wages. Whether the creditor can garnish your spouse's wages depends on who guaranteed the payments.
Getting a Garnishment
Before a hospital can garnish your wages it must go through the proper legal process. This involves first filing a civil lawsuit against you. Once the debt is validated in court, a judgment will be issued against you. The hospital will then have to give you some time to pay the judgment amount. After that time has passed, the hospital can then get a writ of execution and set up a wage garnishment.
Garnishing Spouse
Whether your spouse can have his wages garnished will depend on who is accountable for the debt. The person who is ultimately accountable for the debt is the one who signed as the guarantor with the hospital. If you are the only person who signed the contract with the hospital, then you are the only person who is responsible for the debt. If your spouse signed as the guarantor, then the hospital could potentially garnish his wages.
Garnishment Amounts
If a garnishment does come into play, the hospital can only take a certain amount of money out of the customer's paycheck. The maximum amount that can be garnished is determined by the laws of the state in which you reside. For example, a maximum garnishment amount might be 25 percent of your paycheck. Once the garnishment is set up, your employer will take this amount of money out of your paycheck and send it directly to the hospital each time you are paid.
Alternatives
When you are faced with a wage garnishment from the hospital, you can try to pursue some other options instead. For example, you could try to set up a payment plan with the hospital instead of allowing it to garnish your wages. If you cannot afford to pay the bills, another alternative would be to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. With this option, you can get the entire bill discharged and you will not have to pay it. However, this should only be done as a last resort as it will significantly hurt your credit score.
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