Question:
I have been unemployed for awhile due to illness, and I am currently over a year past due on some medical bills and credit cards. The total amt. of debt is close to $8000. I am currently living with a friend (who is helping me survive financially) and therefore dont have a phone # or address registered in my name, so I have been fairly successful in avoiding all the collection agencies that are seeking payment from me.
My question is this.....when I go back to work within the next couple months, will all these collection agencies be able to garnish my wages once my SSN pops up on their radar due to receiving a paycheck? Or is this something that only a court can do once the collection agencies obtain a judgment lien against me? I've heard judgment liens can be won by collection agencies even though I am never served a subpoena to appear in court for these debt collections...is this true? If collection agencies can win judgments against me, how much of my paycheck will be garnished...is it a percentage or a fixed amt. of money based on my total debt?


Answer:
I'm not a lawyer but basically I think it depends on your state laws. So, if you say what state you are in, others might have more specific information. Generally, I think they have to get a judgment against you through the courts, find you and find where you work, get a wage execution, then serve that on your employer. In some states, the max they can take is a certain percentage of your pay (about 10% I think). Also, some states only allow one garnishment at a time. So the company that gets the garnishment first gets to collect first. When that one runs out, the next one kicks in, etc. I have heard that there are one or two states that don't even allow wage executions (Texas (?), Florida(?)), but I don't know if that is really true.


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