When you owe money to any creditor including a credit card company, bank, payday loan, and/or credit union and you stop making payments on the debt, the debt goes into default. If your creditor decides it cannot collect the money from you, it may sell your debt to a debt collection agency. If the debt collection agency cannot get you to pay the debt directly, it may file a lawsuit against you to recover its losses. If the creditor files a lawsuit against you and wins, the creditor may seek to enforce the court judgment through a wage garnishment, bank account seizure, tax refund garnishment and/or property seizure.
In Michigan, a wage garnishment can only be done with a court order after a lawsuit has been filed and won by the creditor. If the creditor seeks to garnish your wages, it will seize a portion of your paycheck each and every day payday until the debt is paid in full. The money will be taken from your paycheck and sent directly from your employer to the creditor.
One way to stop a wage garnishment is to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition. When the bankruptcy petition is filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, an automatic stay is entered prohibiting your creditors from taking further collection action against you while your case is pending. Bankruptcy also releases you from the legal liability of pending creditor lawsuits, unsecured debt and deficiencies from repossession and/or foreclosure.
If you live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and your wages are being garnished, call and speak with a bankruptcy lawyer at Church and Korhonen, PC today. See if you qualify for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy by scheduling a free consultation. You don’t need to live with wage garnishment. Call (800) 758-5611 today to reclaim your pay check.