Oklahoma Alimony Garnishment Rules

In Oklahoma, if you do not pay court-ordered alimony to your former spouse, your spouse can ask the court to garnish your wages. If the court agrees, your employer must withhold a portion of your wages each pay period to give to your former spouse until you have caught up with alimony payments. However, if you receive alimony rather than owing it, creditors may not garnish your alimony payments when collecting debts.

Maximum Garnishment

If a debtor owes money in Oklahoma, including back pay for alimony payments, a creditor may garnish up to the lesser of two amounts: 25 percent of the debtor's disposable income or 30 times the federal minimum wage for that pay period. The debtor's disposable income is all income he takes home after required deductions such as payroll taxes. If other creditors are already garnishing 25 percent of the debtor's income, no new creditors can garnish her income until one of those garnishments is finished.

Statute of Limitations

Creditors in Oklahoma, including people who are trying to collect past-due alimony, must file a lawsuit with the court before the statute of limitations expires. In Oklahoma, the statute of limitations for written contracts such as alimony agreements is five years from the date of default. After the statute of limitations expires, debt collectors cannot use the court system to collect debts, although they may still use collections agencies to attempt to recover the debt.

Exempt Income

Certain types of income are exempt from garnishment in Oklahoma. Alimony payments, child support payments, pension and retirement benefits, some public assistance benefits and veteran's benefits are exempt. This means that creditors cannot garnish these payments when attempting to collect a debt, even if they have a court order to garnish a debtor's income.

Defenses Against Garnishment

If a creditor requests garnishment, the debtor has the right to defend himself in court. If the debtor can show the garnishment request is wrongful -- i.e. someone with the same name owes alimony and he doesn't or his payments were not posted when they should have been -- the court will dismiss the garnishment. Other defenses against garnishment include proving procedural errors such as the debtor not receiving proper notice or demonstrating that the debtor does not have garnishable income or is already subject to the maximum amount of garnishment permitted.