Many clients come to Mile High Bankruptcy in Denver, Colorado AFTER their paychecks are being garnished, having no idea where the garnishment came from. Often the garnishment is from a medical creditor, or an old repossession, or house foreclosure many years in the past.
Often these clients don’t remember ever being sued or served court papers and wonder why they are being garnished without any previous court papers being served.
Other than the IRS, child support, and certain other government garnishments, regular commercial creditors can only garnish after they have filed papers with the court and received judgment against you.
The client may have forgotten the service, or the service was made on an adult at the client’s last known address (even if they have moved) and then certified to the state court as proper so that the judgment can enter. Unfortunately, this happens frequently.
Usually, this problem can best be fixed by filing a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and getting rid of not only the garnishment, but all the clients other debts as well. The garnishment is often a WAKE UP CALL for the client to solve ALL OF HIS OR HER DEBT PROBLEMS through Chapter 7 bankruptcy. People ask if they can fight the garnishment if service was improper, but practically speaking, this is a much more difficult and expensive attempt to solve the problem than filing the bankruptcy which fixes the whole debt problem forever.
