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Wage Garnishment - anyone with experiences?

disneymom78's picture
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My husband pays his child support on time every time since the divorce without fail. The BM is on a rampage again and wants to garnich wages for CS. Can she do this? Anyone with experiences?

skylarksms's picture

in our state it automatically comes out of the checks. I don't think there is even the option of direct payment.

I am not sure if she has a leg to stand on if he has made all his payments on time.

BUT - why not LET them take it directly out of his check. One less reason for BM to feel like she has to contact him!

overit2's picture

Ughhh speaking of....I just got off the phone w/my ex about the CS-it's a pain that it's not taken straight from check...I get tired of this battle every week---so can you deposit? Or cash when I see the kids, what's happening...every week I have to go on a darn treasure hunt it gets really old. I rather NOT deal w/him-just deposit the check every Fri afternoon and be done w/it. It's stupid!

BUT I wouldn't go the 'garnish' route unless he was seriously behind.

purpledaisies's picture

She can NOT have it taken out of his check. The only way that he can have his check garnished is for him to be behind and the state does it or if he asks for it to be taken out of his check then it goes to the state and then she gets it. Either way it w3ill take a while for her to get it if the state handles it. But no she can not request for his check to be garnished just b/c she wants it that way!

Our bm tried the every same thing and it did NOT happen. Dh had already had it taken out and sent to the state and bm would get it when they send it to her. Well she claimed that dh was 1k behind in CS which is how she got the state to look at her CS. Then SURPRISE dh was ahead 1k in CS which dh told her he 3was and to NOT do it but she did. With that said bm DID NOT get CS for 3 months. LOL

caregiver1127's picture

My DH had it that way and I don't think he had a choice - he did not really care though because he would have paid it either way - and it did make it easier on him - he did not have to contact her at all about CS - when SS came to live with us they did not use the courts because she claimed she was too poor to pay any CS which worked for 13 months until she showed up at a P/U (we live 700 miles apart and do 1 P/U in person a year) in a $40,000 car so that is when DH demanded that she pay some CS - but they still did not go through the courts and then when SS moved back with her - DH and BM discussed an amount and DH pays each month but there is not courts involved so we just write a check every month and I make sure that it says January 2011 Child Support Payment .

I do have a question of my own - if she were to say for any reason that we were not paying CS or enough could she go back 4 years or do they say tough luck you should have done it when he moved back - I am not saying she will do this but I am wondering what the law is regarding back CS - we do pay every month with a check and do mark it with the month, year and CS Payment and it has been the same amount for the last 4 years - I feel it is a bit too much but every time she bitches and whines about not having enough money DH says take me to court and she shuts up!!

herewegoagain's picture

My DHs crazy witch did this...watch out and start saving lots of money just in case...What his crazy witch did (yes, he always paid it and on time) was tell the courts he had not been paying...this gives the court a "reason" to garnish his wages...once they garnish them, she can either claim he did pay and they won't make him pay it "back" (yes, I know he's paid...mine did too) or she can be ever worse and say he didn't pay and you could end up having to pay twice.

Things to be very careful about...we went through it, so I want you to protect yourself...

1. court is required to send a letter to you...odds are you will get the letter AFTER they actually garnish the wages...that's what happened to my DH...
2. law says that you have 30 days to contest it...the cs workers will tell you on the phone that calling in is enough...it is NOT!!!
3. odds are that once they garnish they will also attempt to increase it...get your ducks in a row
4. make sure that in the court order NOWHERE does it say that that the "arrears" are PAID IN FULL...yes, my DH did not have arrears but because this was the only way that the idiots could justify the garnishment, they put he had arrears in the court order and once he proved otherwise they showed the court order as "PAID IN FULL"...that is NOT the same as never being owed...it goes on his credit record and it will NOT be removed...it might show as paid, but it will stay show that he once owed that amount
5. because there is a "bogus judgement" against you, his credit score will probably go down...there won't be a darn thing you can do to get that fixed
6. check online or go to the local courthouse and ensure that no liens are filed for this CS order...even though the letter they send to you states you have 30 days to contest and if NOT THEN they will put a lien and report to your credit, BOTH of those things were done to my DH before he even RECEIVED the freaking letter...
7. if you are in a county that publishes liens online, check their website, public records, etc...and ensure there is no lien...and if there is, that it has NO social security information, address, etc...Tarrant County in Texas put my husband's FULL social security number, address, date of birth, full name, driver's license information on the lien online in public records for the world to see! (PS if you are a felon in Texas that is removed from records, but NOT if you are a father paying child support...go figure!)
8. if you have joint credit cards, insurance, etc...make sure that you REMOVE him from anything...if not, you could end up like me...I ended up with much higher interest rates on MY credit cards that I had given him a card for because of the CS office messing up his credit report and the credit card companies, insurance companies, etc...checking credit reports to determine interest rates, insurance rates, etc...I ended up paying more and can't ever lower it now...especially when the witch ruined us financially...

I am sorry...these crazy women DO have all the power...protect YOURSELF...

PS - this is what happened in the crappy state of Texas and Tarrant County...but even if you are not there, PROTECT YOURSELF! get everything in writing and do NOT sign anything that is not 100% correct...

Good luck...

GoodbyeNormaJean's picture

In our state either party can request that a case be opened through CSSD and once that happens, the CS has to be directly withdrawn. It can come from a paycheck, the PFD, tax refunds, a checking account, anything. But it has to be withdrawn.

It's by far the easiest way to handle it in my opinion. When she asks about CS, you can always say "Talk to CSSD. It comes straight out of my check and I never see it."

We are custodial and cannot trust our BMs to pay or tell the truth, so we have to do everything through CSSD.

disneymom78's picture

Thank you all for your tips and advice. I agree it would be easiest to have it just automatically come out and not have to think about it month to month. BUT at the same time I don't want to give more control to her if I can help it.

Herewegoagain.. OMG that is alot to take in I will have to read it over a few times to take it all in.

Thanks again!

catsfanksu's picture

Here in Kansas, garnishment is automatic unless the court orders otherwise. We are military and on a fixed pay schedule which created MONSTROUS complications when his pay was early due to holidays, as it them made 2 payments in one month and showed no payment for the next. I was on the phone with out payment center at least twice a year battling this!

SJH

simifan's picture

DH had a garnishment when BM went for more child support, it made things much easier. All he has to say was you asked for garnishment, call DPW. No more calls for more money, early money, your 1 hour late money...was even better when they had her submit daycare receipts because DH refused to pay the same bill twice - she loved to give us two/ three copies of the same bill (down to he receipt #)& demand it be paid again. Though my absoloute favorite was when their computer system went down & she didn't get paid for almost three months. She was absolutely livid & couldn't do a damn thing about it.

BM now has CS garnished as well. It works well for us, but we do get paid in odd amounts & it makes no sense. You would think the deposits would match the withdraws - but it doesn't.

distorted reality's picture

BM in my circumstance specifically demanded garnishment. She claimed that he would skip out and leave her kids destitute. She got it. She also told SO afterwards, that she did it to humiliate and shame him. She went on to tell the kids that "daddy refused to pay so she had to take him to court." What a POS she was... IS. It's hilarious now at times. The state is sometimes very late getting the CS payments to her so she'll call SO and leave a nasty VM demanding that HE do something about it. LMFAO! DumbAss! }:)