Wage Garnishment Lawyer in Richmond
Fighting to Reduce or Eliminate Wage Garnishment for Richmond Clients
Are your bills piling up with no end in sight? Are you unable to pay your debt and getting harassed by creditors as a result? Creditors and government agencies may resort to wage garnishment to pay your debts. For context, garnishment means any legal or equitable procedure in which an individual’s earnings are withheld for the payment of any debt. It is essentially a debt collection tool.
Given the nature and impacts of garnishment, creditors or government agencies must first obtain a court order that requires an employer to withhold a certain amount of the debtor’s wages. That amount will be paid directly to the court, which then gives it to the creditor.
Ironically, wage garnishment can make it harder for you to pay your debt, despite its purpose being to get your debts paid off as quickly as possible. Whether you’re behind on child support, lost your job, or cannot pay your healthcare bills, our Richmond wage garnishment attorney can help defend you from these harmful actions.
Our team at Flores Law PLLC strives to help stop garnishments, get your garnished money back, unfreeze your bank accounts, and more.
To schedule your consultation and learn how we can help you, contact us online or at (804) 315-0810!
How Much Money Can be Garnished from Your Paycheck?
In Virginia, creditors can take up to 25% of your gross paycheck each pay period OR the amount by which your disposable earnings exceed 40 times the federal minimum wage ($7.25/hour). For further context, “disposable earnings” are the remaining earnings you have after the following deductions have been made:
- Federal income tax withholding deductions
- Federal social security tax deductions
- State and city withholding deductions
High interest may also accrue while your wages are garnished, making it even more difficult to pay off your debt. Garnishment and high interest combined can be a recipe for disaster. To better clarify what garnishment looks like in Virginia, we explain the maximum amounts of disposable earnings that may be garnished per pay period for your ordinary debt below:
- Weekly pay period: NO wages may be garnished if your disposable earnings total $290 (40 x the federal minimum wage) or LESS. If your weekly wages total at least $290, up to 25% of your paycheck can be garnished.
- Bi-weekly pay period: If you earn $580 (40 x 2 weeks x federal minimum wage) or LESS every two weeks, NONE of your wages can be garnished. If you earn at least $580 every two weeks, up to 25% of your bi-weekly wages can be garnished.
- Semi-monthly pay period: NONE of your wages can be garnished if you earn $628.33 (40 x 2.16665 weeks x federal hourly minimum) or LESS twice a month. If you earn at least that amount, a maximum of 25% of your semimonthly earnings can be garnished.
- Monthly pay period: Your monthly wages can ONLY be garnished if you earn at least $1,256.66 each month.
As you can see, you must earn a certain amount of disposable income per pay period to avoid garnishment. If you meet the minimum threshold for garnishment, however, up to 25% of your wages will be garnished.
"He's the best professional I've seen, everything went perfect in our process thanks to Flores team. I'm definitely asking them for help if any legal representation is needed in the future."
- Jerry R.