Usually, when a debtor owes a creditor money and the creditor receives a civil judgment against him, the creditor can make a motion to garnish the debtor's wages or another form of income. However, this is not true in most cases in Texas. In Texas, 100 percent of a person's wages are exempt from garnishment by private creditors. This means only a few types of creditors can collect money through garnishment.
Garnishment in Texas
Texas is one of only a few states that make the garnishment of wages for the collection of a private debt illegal. Even if a creditor wins a lawsuit against a debtor and is awarded damages, he will still not be able to collect the money that he is owed. However, several parties are exempt from this law or can find ways around it.
Out of State Creditors
The exemption on wage garnishment only applies to civil judgments that are won in Texas courts. If a creditor files a suit in an out-of-state court and that court orders a Texas resident's income to be garnished, then a Texas court may honor the garnishment. However, this would be contingent on the out-of-state creditor having jurisdiction that allows him to file in an out of state court.
Governments
Restrictions on wage garnishment do not apply to governments. Both state and federal governments are allowed to seek wage garnishments if the person owes them money. If a person owes a state such as Texas back child support or he owes the Internal Revenue Service taxes, then both of these agencies would be allowed to garnish his wages in Texas if they were to secure a ruling against the debtor.
Local Creditors
According to the reference website Debt Settlement Attorneys, there is one way that a Texas creditor could garnish the wages of a Texas debtor. This could happen if the creditor took a civil suit, moved to another state and then attempted to "domesticate" that suit in an out-of-state court. Then, the out-of-state court could order a garnishment of the Texas debtor's wages.
0 comments:
Post a Comment