Wage garnishment

A wage garnishment can only happen by court action in Florida, except for the IRS.  Except for very rare exceptions, a Florida Court will not allow a garnishment of wages unless a judgment has already been entered against the employee. The procedure is that after a judgment has been entered, the judgment creditor applies for a "continuing writ of garnisment."  The court must enter an order directing the Clerk to issue a "Continuing Writ of Garnisment."  That writ is then served upon your employer by a process server.  At that point, your employer is obligated with withhold 25% of your take home pay that exceeds 30 times the Federal Minimum Wage per week.  Your employer then files an Answer to Writ of Garnisment, stating that you work there and that they are withholding the required funds.  (Your employer should HOLD those funds until a court order is issued, but some employers improperly send the money to the judgment creditor.) Then (HERE'S THE IMPORTANT PART) the judgment creditor is required to send you a "Notice of Garnishment" which includes forms you can use to claim the "head of family" exemption under Fla. Stat. 222.11.  If you are a head of family, then you need to submit the forms as instructed.  The Judgment Creditor must respond with a denial affidavit, or the garnishment should be dismissed.  Otherwise, the court will set a hearing to determine whether the exemption applies.HERE'S THE OTHER IMPORTANT PART.  If a debt collector has been threatening to garnish your wages before a judgment has been entered against you. you should immediately talk to an attorney about whether the debt collector has violated either the Federal Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA, 15 U.S.C. §1692) or the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act (FCCPA, Fla. Stat. §559.72), or both.  Debt collectors are not allowed to lie to you or mislead you.  You may be able to sue the debt collector and get any actual damages you have suffered, plus up to $1,000 in statutory damages even if you have suffered no actual damages, plus your attorney's fees and costs are paid by the debt collector.  Usually the attorney who handles collection harassment cases will represent you at no cost to you.