Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Iowa

Well, sooner or later the sheriff will find out where you live from your creditors. Garnishment may not be so bad because the amount they can garish is severely limited.

Here's some general information.

Federal law governs wage garnishment for debt.

Wages and accounts may be garnished.

Each creditor must apply to the court for a writ of execution and that writ is served on someone who owes you money-in this case, your employer, or in the case of a bank account garnishment, the bank where your money is deposited.

Certain income is exempt from garnishment-pension, social security, SSI, disability.

Also, if accounts are garnished, the garnishor is limited to money that has been in the account longer than ninety days, which presumably means it is wages. In practice banks do not observe these limitations-the normal practice is to take ALL the money and let you try and figure it out. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn�t.

Sometimes, under Iowa law we may see a debtor examination which is a legal proceeding whereby a debtor is sworn under oath to disclose the location of assets. It is rarely used and I have never seen it or heard of it being done in 11 years of practice.

Disposable earnings are earnings after taxes and social security, and unemployment insurance have been deducted. Health and Dental insurance, life insurance, charitable contributions and other payments are NOT exempt from garnishment.

Maximum amounts:

The maximum that may be garnished in any pay period (regardless of how many garnishment orders are received by the employer) is limited to the LESSER of two amounts-either 25 per cent of your disposable earnings OR the amount by which disposable earnings are greater than 30 times the Federal minimum wage, which is $5.85 per hour.

Let�s assume that your biweekly check is $1,300.

That would be $604 weekly (2,600/4.3)

604 x .25 = $151 maximum garnishment weekly

$5.85 x 30 = $175.50

We go with the lower figure for the week.

You may apply to the court for an exemption of more money from garnishment if the money is for the support of your family.

Maximum amount for any calendar year is on a sliding scale from $250 per creditor per year to 10 per cent of the annual wages per creditor, not per judgment under Iowa Code �642.21

Section �D� below suggests that if your annual income is $35,000 or more, you can expect that any one creditor may garnish $2,000 of your wages in any one year.