In judgment enforcement law by non-government entities, there are three types of wage garnishment remedies that we see. There are Civil Wage Garnishments (25% garnishment maximum C.C.P. 706.050 ) Spousal Support Wage Garnishments (50% maximum garnishment C.C.P. 706.030 / 706.031) and Spousal Support Wage Assignment Orders (50% maximum garnishment, but much broader than traditional garnishment Fam. Code 5208 et seq). Exemptions in connection with these proceedings have extremely abbreviated timeframes, and must be addressed properly, or else the garnishment gets dropped immediately.
Like many other remedies, Wage Garnishments/Assignments were designed as straight forward and easy remedies to collect a judgment. However, oftentimes, debtors are self employed, and so, the debtors own company is the company you are serving the garnishment on. What are the chances the debtor is going to garnish his own wages? Next to nothing. What do you do when debtors employer is “friendly”, and reduces debtors wages down to almost nothing, and pays the debtor in another way, to avoid the garnishment? Do you give up on your judgment enforcement?
This is where garnishments — which should be simple– get tricky very fast. What do you do when garnishments are ignored or not complied with?
There are multiple laws designed to punish noncompliant employers for failure to honor garnishments and wage assignments. See section on Third Party Liability for more on this.
A few remedies are:
-Subpoena employer and obtain records showing they paid debtor in spite of garnishment, then make a motion for judgment against them (C.C.P. 701.020)
-Appoint a Receiver to enforce the garnishment (Crocker National Bank v. O’Donnell)
-Bring a Civil Action against the Employer for failure to comply (C.C.P.
Collection Attorneys in Los Angeles since 2011, The Evanns Collection Law Firm has been enforcing judgments for years and we know the ins and outs of garnishments and enforcements of garnishments as a means of judgment collection. Phone calls are always free and no obligation. Call now at 213-292-6888.