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Common Questions about Garnishment
Contents
These are common questions about garnishments.
Questions about Garnishment
A creditor can garnish whichever is less:
- Up to 25% of your disposable earnings OR
- The amount of your disposable earnings that's more than 30 times the federal minimum wage (currently $217.50 a week)
Read the article An Overview of Garnishment to learn about garnishments.
If you think more than the maximum is being garnished from your paycheck, you can object to the garnishment. To learn more, read the article Objecting to Garnishments.
If a creditor has a judgment against you, it can ask for a writ of garnishment 21 days after the judgment is entered. If you haven’t paid the judgment within the 21 days, the court will issue the writ of garnishment (nonperiodic). The creditor has 90 days to serve the writ on your bank. This is usually done by mail.
When your bank or credit union gets a writ of garnishment against you, your account may be frozen. You will not be able to withdraw or deposit money into it. Any checks you have written may bounce and the bank may charge you fees.
Within 14 days of getting the writ, your bank must complete a Garnishee Disclosure and mail it to the court and the parties. If the bank doesn’t disclose within the time limit, the court can order it to pay the full amount owed on the judgment.
Once you have notice of the writ, you have 14 days to file an objection with the court. If the court does not receive any objections, or finds an objection invalid, garnishment will start.
Your bank must send the funds to the court or the creditor 28 days after being served a copy of the writ, unless it gets a court order telling it not to. The bank must wait 28 days to transfer the money so you have time to object to the garnishment.
Your bank can only take money out of your bank account once for each writ of nonperiodic garnishment. Your creditor will have to file another request to get more money from your account.
A state tax refund can only be garnished through the Michigan Department of Treasury. Both private creditors and public state agencies may garnish a state tax refund. Garnishment of a state tax refund is also known as tax interception or a tax offset.
A court must issue a judgment against a debtor before a creditor can get a writ of garnishment. If the debt is not paid within 21 days, the creditor must ask the court to issue a writ of garnishment.
After the writ of garnishment is issued, the creditor has 90 days to serve the Department of Treasury with a copy. The creditor must serve a copy on the debtor within seven days of serving the Department of Treasury. Within 90 days of when the writ is received, the Department of Treasury sends a receipt for the intercepted amount to the debtor.
After getting a copy of the writ from the creditor, a debtor has 14 days to file an objection with the court. If no objection is filed within 14 days, the money will be taken out of the debtor's state tax refund if there is one.
If you’ve been notified of a writ of garnishment, you cannot legally hide or transfer your assets to avoid garnishment. This includes emptying your bank account.
Commingling funds is combining exempt funds and non-exempt funds. You combine funds if you put both types in the same account. This can make it harder to prove some of the money was exempt.
It’s also commingling to combine your exempt funds with someone else’s non-exempt funds. Read the article Garnishment Exemptions to learn what funds are exempt.
Exempt funds should not be garnished. If they are, you may have a reason to object to the garnishment. Read the article Objecting to Garnishments to learn when and how to object to a garnishment.
Your exempt money usually stays exempt. But it can be hard to prove money was exempt if you’ve commingled it with nonexempt money.
If your exempt money is garnished, you can object to the garnishment. You will have to prove the money was exempt. To learn when and how to object to a garnishment read Objecting to Garnishments.
If you could be garnished, you may want to avoid commingling your exempt funds with non-exempt funds.
If you are garnished and have “commingled” funds, it can be hard to prove some of the money was exempt. And some of your exempt funds will be garnished. You will have to take extra steps to try to get those funds back.
If you have been commingling exempt and non-exempt funds, you can stop commingling.
To stop commingling, open a separate bank account and deposit your exempt funds in it. Do not put any non-exempt funds in that account; keep them separate.
If your exempt funds have been garnished, you can object to the garnishment. You will then need to prove to the court that the funds were exempt and should not have been garnished.
Read An Overview of Garnishment to learn more about garnishments. Read Garnishment Exemptions to learn if you might have exempt income. Read Objecting to Garnishments to learn when and how to object to a garnishment.
Most public benefits payments are exempt funds. Read Garnishment Exemptions to learn what money is exempt from garnishment.
You may want to object to garnishment if exempt funds are garnished from your bank account. Read Objecting to Garnishments to learn how.
Some federal benefits are electronically deposited into your bank account. They should not be frozen if they were deposited in the past two months. Read Electronically Deposited Exempt Federal Benefits to learn more.
To learn how to object to garnishment, read the article Objecting to Garnishments.
You can object to a garnishment more than 14 days after you were served with it. But the garnishee will continue to withhold your money from you while the objection is pending. The garnishee has to give it to the creditor. A garnishee can’t stop paying a writ until it expires or it gets a court order to stop paying it.
If you file an objection more than 14 days after getting the writ and the judge rules in your favor, it may take some time for the garnishee to return your money.
Read the article Objecting to Garnishments to learn when and how to object to a garnishment.
The court must schedule a hearing within 21 days of when you file your objection. Ask the court clerk if you can set a hearing date when you file your objection.
There is no cost to file an objection to garnishment.
The best way to avoid garnishment is pay your debts. If you’re behind on your bills, contact your creditor and ask to set up a payment plan. Before a creditor can garnish you, your creditor must get a judgment against you. A judge must decide you owe the debt. Read Dealing With Debt Before Court to learn more.
If there’s a judgment, you can ask the court to order an installment payment plan. This protects your paycheck from being garnished. To learn about installment payments, read Getting an Installment Payment Plan.
It’s illegal to move or hide your assets to avoid garnishment after the court issues a writ of garnishment.