Wage Garnishment in Georgia: Limits, Process and What Bankruptcy Changes

How much of your pay can be garnished in Georgia?

Georgia's ordinary cap is the lesser of 25 percent of a work week's disposable earnings or the amount above $217.50, subject to §§ 18-4-6 and 18-4-53. Disposable earnings exclude federal and state income tax, FICA, and other legally required deductions. A private student loan judgment — an educational loan for postsecondary expenses, not one guaranteed under 20 U.S.C. Section 1070, et seq. — carries 15 percent, binding the garnishee only when the summons states that conspicuously on its face or a court order in the pending case is served. Non-weekly pay uses the proportionate fraction or multiple of 30 hours per week at $7.25 per hour (O.C.G.A. §§ 18-4-5, 18-4-1).

A garnishee whose defendant is not its employee under its federal and state income tax withholding need not know or compute disposable earnings, and may answer ignoring those exemptions until served with or consenting to a court order or filed modification form supplying an alternative, enabling basis. The cap survives multiple cases naming one defendant, unless the garnishee holds a continuing garnishment for support — 50 percent of that week's disposable earnings instead, subject to § 18-4-6 (O.C.G.A. §§ 18-4-5, 18-4-53).

How does a creditor start a garnishment on a money judgment?

Georgia's garnishment process begins with an existing money judgment. When a money judgment was obtained in a Georgia or federal court, or is being enforced here under the foreign-judgment articles of Chapter 12 of Title 9, the plaintiff is entitled to the process of garnishment, under a procedure uniform in all Georgia courts with jurisdiction over garnishment proceedings (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-2(a), (b)).

The plaintiff, its attorney, or its agent makes an affidavit, on personal knowledge or belief, stating that the plaintiff has a judgment against a named defendant, the amount remaining due, the court that rendered it, and the case number. On filing, the clerk causes a summons to issue, provided the affidavit was made before an officer authorized to administer oaths, a notary public, the clerk, or a deputy clerk; electronic submission is allowed only if the court has promulgated rules authorizing it (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-3(a), (b), (c)).

The amount shown on the summons shall not exceed what the defendant owes under the judgment, and when a plaintiff uses the incorrect form of summons the garnishment is not valid and the garnishee is relieved of all liability (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-7(a), (d)). Salary due state, county, and municipal employees is subject to garnishment, except where the judgment arose from liability incurred in the scope of governmental employment while responding to an emergency (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-26(a)). Support withholding, taxes, and federal administrative collection run under separate authority not covered here.

How long does a Georgia garnishment reach your pay?

The garnishment period begins on the day the summons is served on the garnishee (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-4(c)). Obligations the garnishee owes you at the time of service, and obligations accruing to you throughout that period, are subject to the process of garnishment (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-4(a)).

These are periods during which the garnishment reaches money. They are not your employer's answer deadlines, and they are not deadlines for filing a claim. They also do not eliminate exemptions, a release, or protections that may arise in bankruptcy.

What must your employer do after being served?

The garnishee, not you, owes these answers: an ordinary one, with the money, 30 to 45 days after service; a financial institution's, 5 to 15 days, when the garnishment is neither continuing nor for support. Missing either deadline is automatic default. A continuing garnishment's first answer and money fall in that same 30-to-45-day window, each later one within 45 days of the previous answer date (O.C.G.A. §§ 18-4-10, 18-4-21, 18-4-22, 18-4-42).

If the employment or periodic-payment relationship never existed or later ends, the garnishee says so and may answer at once, still inside the 45-day limits; two answers filed 30 or more days apart reporting nothing owed let it file a final answer, so identified. Answers are served on you and the plaintiff at filing — the plaintiff only if its name and address appear legibly on the summons face, and not on you by a financial institution if you have no active account and own no money or other property in its possession — and the garnishee mails you the plaintiff's rights notice and claim form at your last address known to it (O.C.G.A. §§ 18-4-42, 18-4-13).

Which income may be exempt from garnishment in Georgia?

Certain earnings or property of the defendant may be exempt from the process of garnishment. Funds or benefits from an individual retirement account or from a pension or retirement program are exempt until paid or otherwise distributed to a member or beneficiary; once paid or distributed, they are exempt only to the extent of the limits in § 18-4-5 for other disposable earnings, unless a greater exemption is otherwise provided by law. Funds in an unfunded plan maintained by an employer primarily to provide deferred compensation for a select group of management or highly compensated employees are not exempt, and exempt property is not considered disposable earnings for purposes of § 18-4-5 or § 18-4-53(b) (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-6(a)). For continuing garnishment for support, IRA or pension funds are not exempt except as § 18-4-53(b) provides for other disposable earnings, unless a greater exemption is otherwise provided by law (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-53(c)).

The statutory notice lists common exemptions, including social security, supplemental security income, unemployment, workers' compensation, Veterans' Administration, state pension, retirement funds, and disability income, and says expressly that the list does not include all possible exemptions (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-82). The Attorney General maintains a fuller list that clerks post and provide on request, and an exemption's absence from that list does not preclude a defendant from claiming it (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-6(b), (c), (e)). Even when earnings are held at a financial institution, that money may be exempt because of the limits in §§ 18-4-5 and 18-4-53, the exemptions in § 18-4-6, or other reasons (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-15(a)).

How does a defendant's claim of exemption work?

Before judgment, a disbursement order, or distribution by the court — whichever first, subject to subsection (h) — you may become a party by filing a claim with the clerk stating why your money or property is exempt. You serve copies on the plaintiff and garnishee, as does the clerk, and you also serve any third party you name as holding an interest superior to the judgment in funds the court holds. The garnishee must still answer, withhold, and pay the court (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-15).

A claim normally brings a hearing within ten days; until it is held, no further summons issues and no money in court is disbursed. Under (h), a court may refuse a hearing and deny a claim filed after dismissal, or, except in continuing garnishment, including for support, one filed after those endpoints; and grounds already adjudicated, or raisable, in an earlier claim by the same defendant in the same action are barred. The statutory notice's warning — file within 20 days after the garnishee's answer is filed, with copies to both — flags risk, not safe permission to wait. The judgment behind it is challenged only under Chapter 11 of Title 9, in a separate forum, and a judge finding such an attack may stay the garnishment (O.C.G.A. §§ 18-4-15, 18-4-82).

What does filing bankruptcy change about a Georgia garnishment?

A voluntary petition is itself the order for relief and operates as a stay with no separate order, reaching prepetition actions against you, enforcement of prepetition judgments, and acts to collect prepetition claims. Section 362(b)(2)(C) excepts income withholding for a domestic support obligation under a judicial or administrative order or statute, and prior dismissals can limit or prevent the stay, as the FAQs detail. Relief from the stay for cause — terminating, annulling, modifying, or conditioning it — comes only after notice and a hearing; a creditor's request alone is not relief (11 U.S.C. §§ 301, 362).

Frequently asked questions

Can the plaintiff and I just agree to take less out of my check?

Your agreement alone changes nothing. The amount a garnishee pays in a continuing garnishment may be voluntarily modified to a lesser amount if the plaintiff and defendant execute the form in § 18-4-90, effective only on filing the fully executed and attested form in the garnishment court and serving it on the garnishee as the statute specifies, or obtaining an authorized written acknowledgment (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-5(d)). The modification does not terminate the action or relieve the garnishee of filing and serving answers (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-90).

Can my employer fire me because of a garnishment?

No employer shall discharge an employee because that employee's earnings have been subjected to garnishment for any one obligation, even though more than one summons may be served for the same obligation (O.C.G.A. § 18-4-5(c)). Federal law prohibits discharge by reason of garnishment for any one indebtedness and penalizes a willful violation (15 U.S.C. § 1674), and does not affect state laws prohibiting discharge for garnishment for more than one indebtedness (15 U.S.C. § 1677(2)).

Does filing a bankruptcy petition stop a wage garnishment?

A petition generally operates as a stay of enforcement of a prepetition judgment and of acts to collect a prepetition claim, which commonly reaches an ordinary wage garnishment (11 U.S.C. § 362(a)(2), (6)). It does not reach everything: § 362(b) lists exceptions, including income withholding for a domestic support obligation under § 362(b)(2)(C); a court can grant relief after notice and a hearing (§ 362(d)); and prior dismissed cases can limit the stay.

I filed a bankruptcy case before and it was dismissed. Does that matter?

Under § 362(c)(3), if a single or joint case is filed by or against an individual debtor under chapter 7, 11, or 13, and a case of the debtor was pending within the preceding one-year period but was dismissed — other than a case refiled under a chapter other than chapter 7 after dismissal under § 707(b) — the stay as to any action taken with respect to a debt, property securing it, or any lease terminates with respect to the debtor on the 30th day after the later filing. A party in interest may move to extend it as to any or all creditors, only after notice and a hearing completed before that 30-day period expires and only on demonstrating the later case was filed in good faith as to the creditors to be stayed. How much protection otherwise survives is disputed and not resolved here.

What if two or more of my earlier cases were dismissed in the past year?

Section 362(c)(4) handles that separately. If a case is filed by or against an individual debtor and two or more cases of the debtor were pending within the previous year but were dismissed — other than a case refiled under a chapter other than chapter 7 after dismissal under § 707(b) — the stay does not go into effect on the later filing, and on request the court shall promptly confirm that. If a party in interest requests within 30 days after the later filing, the court may order a stay imposed as to any or all creditors after notice and a hearing, only on a showing of good faith as to the creditors to be stayed; that stay is effective on entry of the order (§ 362(c)(4)).

Can Georgia filers use the federal exemption list in bankruptcy?

Georgia law prohibits an individual debtor domiciled in Georgia from applying 11 U.S.C. § 522(d) (O.C.G.A. § 44-13-100(b)). Which state's law applies turns on § 522(b)(3)(A): domicile for the 730 days immediately preceding filing, or if not in one state for that period, domicile for the 180 days immediately preceding those 730 days or a longer portion of that period than any other place. If that requirement would leave a debtor ineligible for any exemption, the debtor may elect the § 522(d) property. Other federal exemptions and qualifying retirement funds are separate.

Sources

• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-1
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-2
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-3
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-4
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-5
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-6
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-7
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-10
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-13
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-15
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-21
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-22
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-25
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-26
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-40
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-42
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-53
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-82
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-86
• O.C.G.A. § 18-4-90
• O.C.G.A. § 44-13-100(b)
• 11 U.S.C. § 301
• 11 U.S.C. § 362 · official source
• 11 U.S.C. § 522 · official source
• 15 U.S.C. § 1672
• 15 U.S.C. § 1673
• 15 U.S.C. § 1674
• 15 U.S.C. § 1677

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