Walk It Through: The Judgment
Most of a week's pay for a consumer debt, the homestead, and a phone, a computer and household goods.
A card company wins a judgment against a cook and moves to garnish the cook's pay.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One judgment and one cook. Student loan garnishment, the steps to claim an exemption, and bank accounts in detail are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- GarnishmentTaking part of a debtor's week's earnings, with the greater of a set multiple of the minimum hourly wage or a share of disposable earnings left exempt; for a consumer debt it is eighty percent.
- Homestead exemptionThe protection of a home from creditors, worth the greater of $125,000 or the county's median sale price of a single family home in the preceding year.