How Bankruptcy helps to STOP Wage Garnishment in Michigan ?

Wage garnishment or holding back a portion of your periodic payment to pay your creditors is a situation that is not at all desirable by anyone. You may feel that you cannot control the situation and is bound to give in to the collection process of your creditors but there are several ways in which you can prevent wage garnishment with the help of filing for bankruptcy.

How does Chapter 7 help with Wage Garnishment in Michigan ?

The moment you file for bankruptcy under chapter 7 and your petition is submitted with the court , the “Automatic Stay” is put into action which immediately prevents any collection procedure on the part of the creditors. Hence, they cannot continue with wage garnishment any longer which is also a type of collection action. However the creditor can ask the court to remove the Automatic stay. Though in most cases, it is not approved by the court, but if it is approved then the creditor can once again continue with the wage garnishment.

How long my wages are going to be protected with the help of the Automatic Stay ?

If you have a past recent record of bankruptcy, then your automatic stay will last for a short time after which you will be liable to wage garnishment again. In case your previous bankruptcy filing was dismissed with a period of one year from the current date of filing bankruptcy, then your Automatic stay will survive for 30 days. If your past record of filing for bankruptcy is more than once in the past year then the automatic stay would not be put to action at all.

Wage Garnishment in Michigan :

If you are from Michigan, according to the respective federal laws of Michigan in particular your wages can be garnished up to 25% of your income excluding taxes and social security. Another alarming point to be kept in mind for a resident of Michigan is that, if your creditor can get hold of your bank or credit union account details, they can seize the entire amount in there through a process called skip tracing.

Key to Stopping Garnishment: Timing your Bankruptcy filing deftly!

The timing is the key to efficiently stop garnishment and suffer nominal or no wage lose at all. You can even get a refund of the wages garnished by your creditors provided that the amount is more than $600 and was garnished within 90 days at most from the time of filing for bankruptcy. In case you file for bankruptcy on the 91st day after a significant amount of wage garnishment, you would not be able to get a refund.

End note:

The most important factor that you should keep in consideration while facing or going through wage garnishment is the timing. Wage garnishment can wreck havoc on your already messed up financial condition but on the brighter side with proper planning you can even recover the lost parts of your wages through bankruptcy. Contact a bankruptcy attorney today before it is too late and seek professional help. You can even contact us at our TOLL FREE  no 1-844-ERASE-BILLS, and book a FREE CONSULTATION with us if you are still in doubt.