Wage Garnishment Relief

Nevada law allows creditors to collect money they are owed in many ways, including garnishing your wages. While Nevada caps wage garnishments at 25% of your wages after deductions, a garnishment can make it very difficult to support yourself and your family. Filing for bankruptcy can give you immediate relief from wage garnishment by stopping creditors from withdrawing money from your bank account or paycheck.

Automatic Stay in Bankruptcy

As soon as you file for bankruptcy, an automatic stay goes into effect that prevents most forms of collection activities, including wage garnishments. Wage garnishments must stop as soon as you file and as long as the bankruptcy stay is in effect. The only way for a creditor to continue their collection efforts is asking the court to lift this stay, which will only be done for a valid reason. If your wages are being garnished by an unsecured creditor like a credit card company, for example, they will not have a valid reason for lifting the stay.

There are exceptions to the automatic bankruptcy stay, including alimony and child support. If your wages are being garnished to satisfy these priority support obligations, filing for bankruptcy will not stop the garnishment.

The automatic stay remains in effect until your bankruptcy is successfully discharged, your case is dismissed without a discharged, or the court lifts the stay. If the underlying obligation for the garnishment, such as credit card debt, is included in your bankruptcy discharge, the creditor cannot continue garnishing your wages after your bankruptcy is discharged.

Recovering Garnished Wages through Bankruptcy

In some cases, you can recover part of the wages that were garnished prior to filing bankruptcy. In most cases, you can get back the wages that were garnished with 90 days prior to filing if they were over $600 combined and you have the exemptions to cover the wages.

In this instance, you can file a complaint in your case and request that the creditor return the wages. A Las Vegas bankruptcy attorney can help you decide if doing so makes financial sense depending on how much the attorney charges to file the complaint and the amount of wages you want to get back.

Contact a Wage Garnishment Attorney in Las Vegas

Wage garnishment can make an already tough situation even harder, but bankruptcy can put a stop to the garnishment right away. A Las Vegas bankruptcy lawyer can help you file for bankruptcy and make sure the creditor is notified right away to put an immediate stop to the wage garnishment. If the underlying debt is unsecured, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy can wipe it out completely and ensure the garnishment does not resume after bankruptcy.

Contact Las Vegas Bankruptcy Lawyers today for a free consultation with an experienced Nevada bankruptcy lawyer to go over your options and decide if bankruptcy is the right choice for you.