Can insurance companies garnish my wages in California?

Anyone, or any entity, with a judgment against you can use any lawful means of collection, including garnishment of wages. Also, damages caused by DUI are not dischargable in bankruptcy. Federal restrictions on the maximum amount that may be withheld from an employee's earnings are directly incorporated into the Wage Garnishment Law. Under these restrictions, the maximum part of the debtor employee's aggregate disposable earnings (below) that may be withheld for any work week may not exceed the lesser of: 25% of the employee's disposable earnings for that week; or The amount by which the disposable earnings for the week exceeds 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage ($5.85 per hour through 7/23/08, $6.55 per hour from 7/24/08 through 7/23/09, and $7.25 per hour thereafter). This means that at least 75% of an employee's disposable earnings are effectively exempt from all nonsupport earnings withholding orders. Moreover, this exemption is automatici.e., no claim of exemption need be made. [CCP 706.050; 15 USC 1673(a); 29 CFR 870.1 et seq]

They can not garnish half your wages. However if they have a valid judgment against you yes they can garnish your wages up to 25% of your income.

The insurance company would have to sue you for the amount of the damages and obtain a judgment against you from a court. Once the judgment is obtained then a garnishment order can be obtained and served on your employer. You will receive papers giving you the opportunity to claim your wages exempt and have a court hearing on that issue. In any case, your employer can only withhold a maximum of 25% of your wages to pay the judgment. You can try to convince the judge that nothing should be taken by your employer. Since the damages involved result from an accident in which you were DUI (in addition obviously to having been driving uninsured!) then you might not be able to discharge the debt related to the accident in a bankruptcy case. You might want to consult with a bankruptcy attorney about this but can try to avoid a judgment being issued first by defending the lawsuit if filed and served against you. The insurance company can have your drivers license suspended if a judgment is obtained against you because of the accident and then you do not pay the judgment. Usually the DMV would have suspended your license already for the DUI and for driving uninsured. The judge in the criminal case could have ordered you to pay the damages as part of the conditions of probation but maybe didn't do it because the other driver was uninsured. Usually in that situation the restitution issue is reserved but the insurance company could ask the judge to impose it if you are still on probation because of the DUI conviction. You got yourself in a big mess for drinking and driving. It sounds like you did not hurt someone (or at least not seriously although the other driver has the right to also sue you for personal injuries) and that it was mostly property damage. You were lucky in the sense that you could have injured or killed someone and then have had to spend years in prison, not to mention having that in your conscience forever Hopefully you learned from your mistake.