Castle Law Office Blog | Missouri & Illinois Bankruptcy Legal Blog

Bankruptcy Terms To Know: Wage Garnishment

Wage garnishment can seriously affect the quality of your life - and may be a good indicator that you should consider taking a serious look at your debts and the possibility of bankruptcy.

Wage garnishment is an extreme effort by your creditors to collect the money from you that they are owed. After trying to collect through other means, some creditors have the power to take money directly from your paycheck in order to satisfy debts. Wage garnishment can only happen as the result of a court order. Wage garnishment not only means that the amount of your take home pay is lowered - it also means that your employer will become aware of your financial troubles.

Wage garnishment is most common in child support cases and tax collection situations, but it is not unheard of for debt collection agencies to garnish wages for all types of debts, including credit card debts.