When You Need a Kentucky Wage Garnishment Lawyer

For Workers in Radcliff, Elizabethtown, Hardin County or Surrounding Counties Who Are Having Wages Garnished, the Wage Garnishment Lawyers of Musselwhite Meinhart Staples & Hafley Focus on Your Fastest Relief at Least Cost and Stress

Nobody wants to be unable to pay money they owe. Circumstances happen, debt happens, and debt collection can place an unbearable stress on a person, a relationship and family. Creditors, such as credit card companies and healthcare organizations, are getting more aggressive about collecting debts. After the constant phone calls and letters, they may resort to a court order to garnish wages from your paycheck. Involving your employer is another level of stress that anyone would want to avoid. As soon as a creditor is threatening to file a lawsuit for garnishing wages, an experienced wage garnishment lawyer should be contacted to review options and potentially avoid the involvement of the employer. If thinking about contacting a Kentucky wage garnishment or bankruptcy attorney, what should you expect?

There are a few, basic things to know about wage garnishment in Kentucky. First, Kentucky law closely follows federal law on wage garnishment:

• Some debts can be directly collected through wage garnishment without a court order, such as federal student loans, alimony, child support or taxes owed.
  
• Wages garnished from other creditors, such as credit card companies, are limited to the lesser of …  25% of weekly disposable earnings (after mandatory deductions, such as social security) or the amount by which the week’s disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage.

Instead, most people would prefer to avoid wage garnishment. If you receive a wage garnishment order, and you haven’t yet contacted a lawyer, you should immediately consult with an experienced wage garnishment attorney to determine if either of these primary options are available to you:

• Raise an objection with the court, to protect (“exempt”) all or some of your wages.
  
• Filing bankruptcy could also protect all or some of your wages.

If the order can’t be stopped, and the employer is required to garnish wages, the next stressful concern is whether or not the employer can terminate employment because of the garnishment. Kentucky wage garnishment law again follows federal law on this issue; The employer can’t terminate an employee because of one garnishment order, but may be able to terminate employment if there are multiple garnishments.

Other than these general guidelines of federal and Kentucky law, there are options and requirements which are defined by the particular circumstance, therefore … the sooner, the better to contact an attorney. Although the first call to a lawyer may also seem stressful, (as most people would prefer to handle their own issues of debt), we at MMS&H have found that none of our clients regret that first, free consult. Not only is our discussion completely confidential, but you’ll find it to be understanding, compassionate, and usually encouraging. Remember, we have seen just about everything. Especially when it comes to wage garnishment, the first contact to an experienced attorney is the beginning of the end of the stress.