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Are creditors and collection agencies threatening to garnish your wages or repossess your car? Don’t panic. The Kurland Law Group can help you stop wage garnishment and repossession.
Fortunately, your constitutional rights and state laws protect you. Although the bill collectors don’t want you to know it, wage garnishment and repossession are expensive legal processes that take time. The truth is, they don’t want to jump through the necessary legal hoops to claim your wages, and they certainly don’t want their car back. You have time and the law on your side.
To put it simply, garnishment is the act of taking someone’s money or salary. In garnishment, a court order allows the creditor to take either money, property, or assets as a collateral payment for the unpaid credit. There can either be bank garnishment or wage garnishment. Almost all cases of garnishments are because of a lawsuit filed by the creditor against the debtor who failed to pay their debts. Garnishment is primarily a result of a financial crisis of the debtor or a result of bankruptcy.
For the judgment debtor or defendant’s wage to be garnished, the creditor must obtain a court order that proves that the debtor owes them money or has failed on their payment. In most cases of garnishments, the creditor threatens or harasses the debtor for garnishment when the case is yet to be filed. In some cases where the debt is owed to or part of an Internal Revenue Service or IRS levy, a court order is not required to implement wage garnishment.
This is why working with the best lawyer to stop wage garnishment is very important. An experienced lawyer will protect your rights as a debtor and prevent any harassment from creditors.
Aside from this, there are also limitations on what garnishments could be prevented. Limits can be applied to:
All court orders for child support include automatic income withholding orders. The parent or other parents who are behind in child support payments can also get wage garnishments. In federal law, the limits can go up to 50% of the debtor’s disposable earnings. If the debtor is not on child or spousal support, 60% of the earnings can take a wage garnishment.
Suppose the debtor is currently defaulting on a federal student loan. In that case, the U.S Department of Education or any entity responsible for the collection can take up to 15% of the debtor’s wage. This kind of garnishment is mainly called administrative garnishment.
The federal government can garnish the debtor’s wage without any court judgment. This mostly happens for debtors with unpaid taxes. The weekly exempt amount can be based on the total taxpayer’s standard deduction. States and local governments can also garnish wages.
John owes $11,000 in overdue and unpaid taxes to the IRS. This case exempts the IRS from filing wage garnishments to the court and instead directs John’s employer to remit a portion of his salary to them. In this case, John’s employer will send a part of his income to IRS for a certain amount of time until John’s tax obligation is fully paid or completed.
When wages are garnished, the employer directly pays part of the judgment debtor’s wages to the creditor. Starting October 1, 2020, a new law in Maryland exempts wage garnishments from debtors or workers’ disposable wages, which is less than 30 times the State minimum hourly wage – multiplied by the number of weeks during which the wages are due were earned. In this case, no more than 25% of the debtor or defendant’s disposable wages for a week can be garnished.
*Note: Disposable wages means the remaining wages, salary, or money left after deductions of any amount required to be withheld by law.*
Make sure to call the best lawyer to stop wage garnishment in Rockville, Maryland, to know your rights. You can file a legal defense and protect your earnings against garnishment. Your lawyer can also significantly help you by providing more information about Maryland’s new wage garnishment limitations.
Repossession is the act of taking back property or assets from the debtor after defaulting in payment. Most repossessions happen to secured loans such as car loans. When a debtor fails to pay for the agreed schedule a few consecutive times, the creditor may repossess the car.
Car repossession in Maryland has a stringent liability law to protect the owner of automobiles. There are different practices under car repossession laws that creditors must avoid in Maryland, such as:
However, when the creditor successfully and legally repossesses the car, they can also sell it after proper notifications to the debtor. The creditor can also file a lawsuit or properly demand the remaining unpaid debt if the sold car did not fully cover the debtor’s unpaid or remaining total balance.
For a proper car repossession to occur in Maryland, the car creditor or company should provide important notice and fillings. For Maryland car loaners, before repossession, they must provide notice for the debtor’s right. It must include their right to redeem the vehicle – if the debtor pays for the reasonable expenses the creditor incurs during repossessions.
Another notice would be “Discretionary Notice” for the intent to repossess the vehicle. It also must include the delinquent amount that needs to be paid and the repossession or impounding date. The notice must be given by the creditor at least ten days before impounding.
If the borrower or debtor suspects their rights have been violated or the creditor doesn’t give sufficient notice, they may file complaints against the creditor. Along with your Repossession Attorney in Rockland, Maryville, you can file a case on Maryland’s Commissioner of Financial Regulations for proper legal actions.
Aside from this, the debtor or borrower may also fight and prevent car repossession through several defenses. Your repossession lawyer can help you establish defense such as fraud on the creditor’s part. An example would be when a customer bought a car junk, or the creditor lied at the time of purchase.
Wage garnishments and repossession are primarily the results of defaulting in payments. To stop wage garnishments and repossessions, one can file bankruptcy. However, the firm’s attorneys won’t push you into filing for bankruptcy if you are uncomfortable about it. After all, bankruptcy isn’t suitable for everyone. Often, having an attorney discuss the matter with your creditors, and working out a repayment plan, is an effective way to prevent garnishment, repossession, and foreclosure. But it all starts with an in-depth analysis of how Kurland Law Group can help.
“Creditors must follow a particular set of rules to garnish your wages or repossess your car. The process takes time, and nothing is going to happen tomorrow, but it is important to talk to me about how I can help stop the process in its tracks.” — Attorney Sari Kurland.
An attorney can help you:
If you are concerned about wage garnishment, talk to the right lawyer right away. The Kurland Law Group has more than two decades of experience helping people trying to overcome the burdens of excessive debt. The firm’s attorneys will put a stop to the threatening phone calls and letters immediately. By law, as soon as you hire an attorney, the creditors must start working directly with them. We can guarantee that the best professional and most experienced lawyer will stop a wage garnishment by working with us. We will provide you with the best representation for your case.
Stop your wage garnishments and car repossession by working with us. Contact the firm to schedule a consultation to discuss your circumstances. Call (301) 424-2834 or contact the firm by email to arrange a free phone consultation.
Kurland Law Group is a debt relief agency. The firm helps people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code. With our experience and professionalism towards giving clients the best representation, we can help you solve this problem.
Besides stopping wage garnishments and car repossession, we can also help you with your other bankruptcy problem or help you find the best bankruptcy alternatives that suit your case. Call us now!
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