If one of your creditors has a judgment against you (which means the creditor sued you for nonpayment of debt and won), it can garnish your wages. With a wage garnishment (sometimes called a wage attachment), your employer holds back some of your wages and gives them directly to the creditor. Some creditors (like the IRS and AAFEES) get special treatment and can garnish your wages without a court judgment.
If you are served with papers (a “complaint”) you need to give our Honolulu bankruptcy attorneys a call. Oftentimes people aren’t sure what the papers are, so they ignore them and don’t show up in court. Your creditor will then obtain a default judgment allowing the creditor to legally instruct your employer to withhold money from your wages. So whether you can afford it or not, 25% percent of your pay would go to your debt, until it is fully paid off. A garnishment can start a spiral of defaults on other debts. Soon your car and house payments are difficult to make, and on and on.
A Hawaii attorney can help stop a garnishment in its tracks. The moment your case is filed your employer is notified, and no further money is taken from your pay. Whether you live in Honolulu County, Maui, Kauai, or Hawaii, if you’ve been served or are currently being garnished, call our office to speak to a lawyer and schedule a free consultation at (808) 518-4844.
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Blake Goodman received his law degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1989 and has been exclusively practicing bankruptcy-related law in Texas, New Mexico, and Hawaii ever since. In the past, Attorney Goodman also worked as a Certified Public Accountant, receiving his license form the State of Maryland in 1988.
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