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Judgement served

Date: Thu, 06/26/2008 - 12:18

Submitted by anonymous
on Thu, 06/26/2008 - 12:18

Posts: 202330 Credits: [Donate]

Total Replies: 10


Today the constable came by my work and served a judgement against me for $150.00 pay day loan. My company has (20) days to answer. I am in Nevada, and I already have a payroll deduction on my pay check for a loan I took out with the Company I work for. Can they garnish my wages with my check already being garnished? I have a written contract with my Boss on paying back this money each week. I did not know that payday loan places could garnish your wages?? Please advise.


Did you receive a court summons prior to this? I don't think they can get a judgment and garnish your wages without a court lawsuit.

However, when you take out a Payday Loan, I think you usually sign a voluntary wage assignment, which you should be able to revoke in writing by sending a copy to the lender and giving a copy to your payroll department.

I'm not an expert regarding payday loans, so hang in there, and I'm sure that someone else with more knowledge will be along shortly to give you more advice!


lrhall41

Submitted by alias1958 on Thu, 06/26/2008 - 15:15

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I did a Google, and came up with this answer regarding Nevada wage garnishment.

Nevada applies its own statutory exemptions that are generally more liberal than the Federal Exemptions. Nevada allows a wage garnishment of up to 25% of the debtor's disposable earnings. Child support garnishments take priority regardless of when the levy was received. A wage garnishment is good for one hundred and twenty days (120) from the date of service of the writ on the employer.

Then I thought: Okay nice answer, but how do you figure out what your disposable income is? So I did another Google search and found this.

Federal law limits the maximum amount that can be garnished to the lesser of 25 percent of your disposable income (what's left after required taxes and so forth are withheld) or 25 percent of your weekly wages that are over 30 times the minimum hourly wage.

It's part of a much larger answer and the URL for the entire page is : http(colon)//bankruptcy(dot)lawyers.com/consumer-bankruptcy/Garnishment.html

just replace (dot) with and actual . and the (colon) with an actual : and you should be able to get there.

I checked and found the Nevada minimum wage to be $6.33/hour. I don't know how much you make an hour, and I definitely don't like figurung out what withholdings are for payroll in Nevada (or anywhere else for that matter) so I'm going to let you plug in the numbers on your own and see what you come up with.

What I've never understood about this "25% of your disposable income rule" is what about any other loans, rent payments, food etc., you might have? Would this garnishment cause someone to get behind on their other payments and if so, what happens then? With personal budgets stretched to the breaking points these days, due to are economy, a garnishment is liable to make them fall behinds on further bills causing them even more grief.

So, what happens at that point?


lrhall41

Submitted by FloridaRon on Fri, 06/27/2008 - 07:57

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hang on a second--do you mean a summons? Because I dont know about being "served a judgment"....a judgment doesnt happen on its own, it has to go to court at least enough that a summons is issued before even a default judgment takes place.

The first thing you should do, if what you were served is a "judgment", is to check with the court that it supposedly came from and make sure its even real.

also, a payroll deduction is not a garnishment. Payroll deduction is something you set up voluntarily, a garnishment happens whether you like it or not. So, your deduction will likely have no effect on a garnishment. Your boss, in order to have a garnishment on your check, would have had to take you to court and win his case--otherwise it has no bearing on this.


lrhall41

Submitted by on Fri, 06/27/2008 - 08:08

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You are correct Guest, the CA would have already had to have won a case against the OP. I guess I was just presuming that was the case.

Maybe not, though.

Also, from the way I understood the OP, the loan the OP was paying back to the employer was a separate deduction and not at all related to the Judgment/garnishment.

Maybe I misunderstood the OP.


lrhall41

Submitted by FloridaRon on Fri, 06/27/2008 - 08:17

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Ron - Disposable income is what you make less any taxes. They don't take into account expenses and other bills.

I was in court once, and the person ahead of me was telling the judge that with the garnishment she would not be able to afford her medication. The judge told her that wasn't his problem, and that it couldn't be taken into account when calculatin the amount of the garnishment.

They don't look at your individual case at all. It's just flat numbers. Pretty much the amount you take home is your disposable income.


lrhall41

Submitted by goudah2424 on Fri, 06/27/2008 - 08:50

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You know, I hate to say it; however, if you are having financial problems it might be a good idea to check your county's Clerk of the Courts website regularly, just to see if you have a case filed against you that you aren't aware of. If you are able to, that is. It might keep you from being unpleasantly surprised if a CA tries any chicanery like not having you served in time (or sometimes not even served at all), making you miss the court date, giving them a default judgment against you. Of course, this only works if the CA files the suit in the proper venue in the first place, IE your county of residence. Some will file them improperly, like in a completely different state, in order to enable them to get a default judgment.

It's not legal for them to do this, but that sure doesn't stop them from trying.

If this is a "wage assignment", though, it' is very easy to revoke. As alias1958 pointed out, just send a letter to the lender (and CA if need be, just to CYA) revoking this. Present a copy to your employer, with proof of deliver/receipt, showing you did this, if the lender/CA tries invoking it. I think it needs to be done prior to the CA/lender contacting the employer, though. And I believe I have also read the employer is not required to honor this wage assignment either, it's entirely at their discretion.

But still, it's best to "nip it in the bud" before it does become a problem!

And Goudah2424, I am just appalled at what you posted; that judge should be ashamed of himself. Was this an elderly person you saw, or someone relatively young. I think it would be a very easy thing to prove whether or not the person was telling the truth about not being able to afford their medication or not. And if that were the case, an exception needed to be made. I'm sure some people might try to BS their way out of the garnishment by using excuses like that; however, if it is a legitimate reason, and it is evident garnishment will cause the person further financial hardship, then that needs to be taken into consideration.

I bet the Judge would be singing a different tune if that had been him, or his elderly parent, in the same situation. And don't think something like that will never/has never happened before. It might be surprising to find out it actually has, and I'm sure someone convinced someone else to make exceptions in that instance!


lrhall41

Submitted by FloridaRon on Sat, 06/28/2008 - 03:04

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