California Employee Instructions - Wage Garnishment

If it's already started, you can try to challenge the judgment or negotiate with the creditor. But, they're in the driver's seat, and if they don't allow you to stop a garnishment by agreeing to make voluntary payments, you can't really force them to. You can, however, stop the garnishment by filing a bankruptcy case.

No assignment of wages is valid in California unless certain conditions are met. In addition, only a certain percentage of an employee's disposable wages can be withheld from each paycheck. Unlike a garnishment order, which is required to be honored by law, an employer has no obligation to honor an assignment.

Your employer is legally required to garnish your wages if they receive a court order to do so, although they are also required to notify you of the garnishment.

Regular creditors cannot garnish your wages without first suing you in court and obtaining a money judgment. That means that if you owe money to a credit card company, doctor, dentist, furniture company, or the like, you don't have to worry about garnishment unless those creditors sue you in court.

The employer is also required to return a statutory response form within 7 days of receiving the writ of garnishment. This form is usually sent to the employer with the garnishment order. With very few exceptions, the employer is required to complete the form indicating that they will pay the garnishment.

Call the Creditor There is nothing lost in trying to talk to the creditor and work out a different arrangement to repay the debt back. File an Exemption In California you may be able to stop the Wage Garnishment through filing an exemption.

Your employer is legally required to garnish your wages if they receive a court order to do so, although they are also required to notify you of the garnishment.

Unfortunately, by ignoring the proper Writ of Garnishment, your employer can get in trouble and Debbie may get fired.and the creditor finds out, your employer may end up going to court on an Order to Show Cause, where they have to explain to the judge why they ignored the court documents.

Employees cannot be fired because their wages are garnished. Federal law protects you from being fired simply because your wages are being garnished for a single debt. However, if your wages are being garnished for two or more debts, your employer can fire you if it decides to do so.