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my husband owess back child support but is currently not earning any income and his payments were on hold and our joint account was garnished without notice for the entire amount owed, thousands over what was in our account. We are in wyoming and the state of PA did the garnishment... we have a request in to modify it but they are saying the judge can deny it or wait 30 days and all of the income in the account was mine Iam the only earner at the moment and bills I paid are bouncing. What are my legal rights?
Optional Information: Country relating to Question: United States State (if USA): Wyoming Already Tried: requesting the state of PA reverse the order and only take 400$. That was the amount they said they'd agree to.
Hello and welcome,I am sorry to hear of your difficult situation.You and your spouse would typically file a notice of exemption with the court that entered the order of garnishment, notifying the court that the funds seized from the account are exempt from garnishment since they represent your earnings, not your husband's, and that the funds should be restored to the account on that basis.I would also open a different account that has only your name on it since this garnishment is in place and they may continue to attach any funds in the joint account.The court's order is what permits the attachment of the funds, so you would normally need to address the issue directly with the court.
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is it legal for them to hold the judgement for 30 days or deny it? We did not get the choice to file an exemption... the child services rep only gave us an option to modify the garnishment order if I allowed her to take 400 $ out instead of the entire amount. I also thought I read that each state law only allows a portion of income to be garnished so how was it legal to put a 5600$ garnishment on an account with 1600 in it anyway? Everything I have read on it states there are percentage limits up to %50 percent. So how was this ever legal?
An entire account balance may be seized and the garnishment of earnings limits do not apply normally. Where one obtains an order to garnish wages, then the limits apply, but not when the bank account is attached directly.You need to file an exemption now with the court, not the agency you have been in contact with. I don't know what you mean "hold the judgment for 30 days or deny it". Every states laws differ, and PA may require that the agency hold the funds for 30 days in case the attachment is challenged, such as the account holder files a notice of exemption with the court in which case the funds may need to be restored to the account.
Experience: JD, 15 years experience including family law