If your wages are being garnished, it means that a creditor has filed a lawsuit against you and obtained a judgment. Only the IRS, State of Georgia and some student loan creditors have the legal right to garnish your wages or bank account without first obtaining a judgment.
- Sometimes our clients tell us that they do not remember being sued and served by a sheriff’s deputy or process server. While it is possible that a creditor forged lawsuit service documents, our experience has been that most people who don’t remember being served actually were. Under Georgia law, the sheriff’s deputy or process server can hand a copy of the lawsuit to an adult who answers the door to your home.
In any case, once a creditor has a judgment in hand, he can take that judgment to the sheriff’s office and obtain something called a Writ of Fieri Facias (more commonly known as a “Fi Fa”) which authorizes the creditor to seize your property to satisfy the judgment. The most liquid property you have is cash, in the form of your wages and your bank accounts.
The creditor will then serve a notice of garnishment on your employer and/or bank, ordering the employer or bank to levy, or seize, your money. Once the funds have been seized, they are sent to the sheriff’s office and held for a set period of time before being released to the creditor.
Generally, your chances of getting your money back increase the faster you get protection of the automatic stay through a bankruptcy filing. If the garnished funds have not been released to the creditor, the sheriff will usually turn those funds over to the bankruptcy trustee. If you can show that the withheld funds are exempt property or that they are necessary for your financial rehabilitation in a Chapter 13, you should be able to get your funds back.
Chapter 13 trustees are often reluctant to return funds because they want to apply these funds to your Chapter 13 plan obligations.
Sometimes, the trustee in bankruptcy will not turn your money over voluntarily and we can either settle for a partial refund or we may have to appear before the judge in a hearing on your Complaint for Turnover.
Ideally you should not wait until after a judgment has been issued and/or a garnishment action started. If you have been served or if you have any kind of knowledge about a lawsuit, call our office – do not wait.