Recently, a reader sent me an email asking about an issue that she was having. She was having a problem with two separate garnishments breathing down her neck. Her question to me was, can a creditor garnish all of her wages using different methods–meaning can one creditor garnish her paycheck and another creditor garnish her remaining paycheck via bank garnishment/levy?
She also asked me whether one can file a hardship exemption if the debt is not a tax debt; in other words, not an IRS-related debt.
Those were good questions. It’s not very common, but entirely possible for a person to get two or more wage garnishment orders issued against him or her due to unpaid debts. What does the law say on this? Would there be more hardship protection so that the garnishments do not take everything away?
Here’s the deal with this. The law generally follows a principle, which is simply put – “First in Time, First in Right”. This applies for garnishments that are not tax related. Hardship arguments are also valid for all the states, but then again, state-specific jurisdictions differ.
End of the day, there is a lot more that goes into it, so be sure to check out our latest article on how one deals with multiple garnishments.
