More Lenders Are ‘Garnishing Wages’ To Get Paid Back

[HeiressofBickworth]

58. Many years ago (1970's) I was a Bankruptcy Paralegal

I worked for a closed-panel law firm which only took clients at lower fees from certain unions as part of their union benefits. The way it was financially viable was that they used four paralegals (lower salaries than lawyers) for most of the routine work and had only two attorneys for court appearances. One paralegal did DUI/occupational license hearings, one did estate planning, one did probates, and I did bankruptcies, divorces and adoptions.

I had a number of clients who came in outraged that their pay had been garnished. After careful questioning about whether they received dunning letters from the creditor, dunning letters from the collections agency, service of process, where were the papers they were handed, was there a court date on the papers, did you go to the hearing, they usually replied that they just tossed them. Garnishment, as one other poster said, is not the first sign of a problem. There were many opportunities to try to work something out (credit counseling service, leniency for loss of job, major illness in the family, etc) but they did not take the opportunity. And then they were garnished. By that time, bankruptcy was an option.

There are legitimate reasons for failure to pay a debt but ignoring it, hoping they will just go away, is not a smart choice. Creditors and their attorneys can be difficult enough in the best of circumstances; no sense in making it worse.