Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Virginia

Re: garnishment after filing Bankruptcy?

Follow the advice of Ms. Bruce

Stopping garnishment after filing Bankruptcy

This is a classic example of why people need to retain a lawyer when filing bankruptcy. In answer to your question, yes you are totally misunderstanding the whole thing.

Your employer is not the party garnishing your wages, he is only complying with an order from a Court which has come to him from the by local authorities. The money ultimately goes to the creditor, who is your former landlord, and is, I presume, listed as a creditor on your bankruptcy. It is that creditor who is obligated to stop the garnishment - but only after receiving notice of the bankruptcy.

If the creditor fails to comply with the order of the bankruptcy court, proceedings can be brought for damages.

Usually, I am able to stop garnishments right away by contacting the authority collecting for the creditor - in my jurisdiction, that is the sheriff. Once they have a copy of the bankruptcy notice, they release the employer from the obligation to continue garnishing. They also will hang on to any funds collected but not paid to the creditor, and eventually return them to you. In many instances, we can even get back money that was distributed to the creditor in the garnishment. But it is a matter of assessing the circumstances and knowing what you are doing.

Most of my clients would do almost anything to avoid letting their boss know they are filing bankruptcy because they want to protect their privacy. There was no reason to ever bring your employer into your personal problems, and you are causing him a lot of problems because you don't know what you are doing.

It is worthwhile to have a lawyer handle these matters. If you continue to represent yourself, you can anticipate more screw ups like this.