Wage Garnishment in Rhode Island: What the Law Says and What Bankruptcy Changes

How much of your pay can be garnished in Rhode Island?

Federal law sets the ordinary ceiling. For any workweek, the maximum part of your aggregate disposable earnings subject to garnishment is the lesser of 25 percent of those earnings, or the amount by which they exceed thirty times the federal minimum hourly wage in effect when payable (15 U.S.C. § 1673). Disposable earnings means what is left after amounts required by law to be withheld (15 U.S.C. § 1672). Those limits do not apply to support orders, orders of a United States court with jurisdiction over chapter 13 cases, or State or Federal tax debt, which does not mean unlimited seizure; separate rules govern each. State protections operate alongside the federal limits: Rhode Island exempts the salary or wages due or payable to a debtor not exceeding fifty dollars ($50.00), plus the relief-based exemptions below (R.I. Gen. Laws § 9-26-4). The statute gives that clause no weekly or pay-period basis, and it is not the only wage protection available.

What do Rhode Island statutes and court rules require of creditors and courts?

After a creditor's claim has been reduced to judgment, a writ of attachment to be served as a wage garnishment issues in the same action only upon motion, with notice to the defendant and an opportunity to be heard. The notice must contain the hearing date, which is not less than ten (10) nor more than twenty-five (25) days after the notice is mailed, and no wage attachment may be served upon an employer until after that hearing date (R.I. Super. Ct. R. Civ. P. 69; R.I. Dist. Ct. Civ. R. 69). If the motion is granted, the writ expires without prejudice unless served upon the employer within forty-five (45) days of its issuance, and no later writ issues in the same action without notice to the defendant and an opportunity for a hearing. The grant relates only to current and identified wages, and recovery in post-judgment process is limited to the amount of the judgment plus actual costs expended and post-judgment statutory interest.

What does your employer have to do when a writ is served?

A wage garnishment reaches only salary or wages above the exempt amount, and the writ must state the judgment amount. Your employer withholds sums not exempt by law until the withholding equals the judgment amount, and is liable only as to that excess (R.I. Gen. Laws § 10-5-8). A garnishee must also account to the court, on oath, for the wages or personal estate it held when served, up to the demands in the writ and subject to a statutory exception (R.I. Gen. Laws § 10-17-2). The account is due within twenty (20) days after service; supplementary accounts then follow monthly in wage garnishments until the demand and costs are collected and reported to the court, the employee leaves that employer, or the plaintiff releases the garnishee from further accounting (R.I. Gen. Laws § 10-17-4).

Which income does Rhode Island law exempt from garnishment?

Rhode Island's exemption statute addresses wages in three clauses (R.I. Gen. Laws § 9-26-4). The entire salary or wages due or payable from a charitable corporation, or from a person or corporation engaged in disbursing or administering a public charitable fund or money, are exempt where those wages are paid or supplied, directly or indirectly, from money appropriated or contributed for relief of the poor or in aid of unemployment and the debtor is the object of that relief or aid. The entire wages or salary due or payable from any employer are exempt where the debtor has been the object of relief from any state, federal, or municipal corporation or agency, for one year from and after the time the debtor ceases to be the object of such relief. The salary or wages due or payable to any other debtor are exempt up to fifty dollars ($50.00); the statute states no weekly or pay-period basis for that figure.

Which statutory protections may matter when contesting a garnishment?

Under both courts' post-judgment wage rules, a debtor's failure to object is not deemed a waiver of statutory exemptions available to that debtor, and the debtor may move at any time to amend or vacate an order of attachment (R.I. Super. Ct. R. Civ. P. 69; R.I. Dist. Ct. Civ. R. 69). The District Court rule adds that issuance is without prejudice to a motion for relief on constitutional or statutory rights or exemptions. Non-wage trustee process differs: the plaintiff sends the writ and a notice setting an exemption hearing, not less than five (5) nor more than nine (9) days after sending; that requirement does not reach a writ attaching wages or a writ against a corporate or business entity judgment debtor. Either party may also summon the person who signed a garnishee's answer, before final judgment, for examination and cross-examination (R.I. Gen. Laws § 10-17-6).

How does filing bankruptcy affect a Rhode Island garnishment?

A petition commences a voluntary case (11 U.S.C. § 301), and the petition itself generally operates as a stay applicable to all entities. The stay reaches a proceeding against the debtor that was or could have been commenced before the case, enforcement of a prepetition judgment against the debtor or estate property, and any act to collect a prepetition claim (11 U.S.C. § 362). Exceptions include withholding of estate or debtor income for a domestic support obligation under a judicial or administrative order or a statute. Prior dismissed cases can shorten the stay or prevent it; see the FAQs below. The court can also grant relief from the stay on a party in interest's request, after notice and a hearing.

How does federal law decide which exemption list applies in bankruptcy?

Under 11 U.S.C. § 522, the choice of exemption list turns on domicile, not on where you file. A debtor may exempt the property specified in the federal subsection (d) list, unless the State law applicable under subsection (b)(3)(A) specifically does not authorize it. In the alternative, the debtor may claim property exempt under federal law other than subsection (d), or under the State or local law applicable on the filing date to the debtor's place of domicile for the 730 days immediately preceding filing, subject to the statute's conditions. If the domicile was not in a single State for that 730-day period, the applicable law is that of the place of domicile for the 180 days immediately preceding those 730 days, or for a longer portion of that 180-day period than in any other place. If the effect of that domiciliary requirement is to render the debtor ineligible for any exemption, the debtor may elect the subsection (d) property. Because a recent move can change which State's law applies, identify the governing State's law before choosing exemptions.

What should you ask a lawyer about a Rhode Island garnishment?

Bring your paperwork — the judgment, any motion or notice, and recent pay stubs — and ask concrete questions. How do the state exemption clauses and the federal limit apply to your actual earnings, including the fifty-dollar clause and the relief-based exemptions? Have you been the object of public relief, and when did it cease? Was the plaintiff's claim based on medical debt as the statutes define it? Which court entered the judgment, what did its notice say, and when was the hearing set? Have you filed bankruptcy before, and which State's exemption law would apply? Legal aid organizations and bankruptcy lawyers can answer these against your own documents.

Frequently asked questions

Can a creditor garnish my wages in Rhode Island without going to court?

These rules cover ordinary wage garnishment on a civil judgment; support withholding, tax collection and administrative processes follow different rules. After a judgment, a wage garnishment issues in the same action only upon motion, with notice to you and an opportunity to be heard. The notice must give a hearing date not less than ten (10) nor more than twenty-five (25) days after the notice is mailed, and no wage attachment may be served upon your employer until after that date (R.I. Super. Ct. R. Civ. P. 69; R.I. Dist. Ct. Civ. R. 69).

Can wages be garnished for a medical bill?

No garnishment of salary or wages issues against a defendant on a judgment where the plaintiff's claim was based on medical debt (R.I. Gen. Laws § 10-5-8). The statute uses the definition in R.I. Gen. Laws § 6-60-1: an obligation of a consumer to pay an amount for the receipt of healthcare services, products, or devices, owed to a healthcare facility or healthcare professional as those terms are defined in R.I. Gen. Laws § 27-81-3. That is narrower than every health-related debt.

How is child support withholding different from ordinary garnishment?

For a support order issued, enforced, or modified on or after January 1, 1994, the obligor's income is subject to immediate withholding on the order's effective date, regardless of arrears, unless a family court judge or magistrate finds good cause not to require it, or the obligor and obligee (and the department, where support rights are assigned) enter a written agreement, or the family court enters an order, providing an alternative agreement for timely payment (R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-5-24). Notice must tell the obligor the maximum withheld may not exceed the federal limit. It has priority over other garnishment unless the court orders otherwise, subject to contrary federal or state law.

How long does the automatic stay last?

It depends on what the stay covers, and the duration rules apply except as provided in subsections (d), (e), (f) and (h) of § 362 and the other paragraphs of subsection (c). The stay of an act against property of the estate continues until that property is no longer property of the estate. The stay of any other act continues until the earliest of the case being closed, the case being dismissed, or, in a chapter 7 case concerning an individual or a case under chapter 9, 11, 12, or 13, the time a discharge is granted or denied. Repeat-filing paragraphs, statutory exceptions and court-ordered relief can change that (11 U.S.C. § 362).

If one earlier case of mine was dismissed, does the stay still apply?

If a single or joint case is filed by or against an individual under chapter 7, 11 or 13, and a single or joint case of that debtor was pending within the preceding 1-year period but was dismissed (other than a case refiled under a chapter other than chapter 7 after dismissal under section 707(b)), the stay terminates with respect to the debtor on the 30th day after the later case is filed, as to any action taken with respect to a debt or property securing such debt or with respect to any lease. That termination's scope is disputed. On a party in interest's motion, after notice and a hearing completed within the 30-day period, the court may extend the stay as to any or all creditors only on a good-faith showing as to the creditors to be stayed (11 U.S.C. § 362).

What if two or more of my earlier cases were dismissed?

If a single or joint case is filed by or against an individual debtor under title 11, and two or more of that debtor's single or joint cases were pending within the previous year but were dismissed (other than a case refiled under a chapter other than chapter 7 after dismissal under section 707(b)), the stay does not go into effect upon the filing of the later case. If, within 30 days after the later filing, a party in interest requests it, the court may order the stay to take effect as to any or all creditors, after notice and a hearing, only on a good-faith showing as to the creditors to be stayed; such a stay is effective on the date the order is entered (11 U.S.C. § 362).

Sources

• R.I. Gen. Laws § 10-5-8
• R.I. Gen. Laws § 9-26-4
• R.I. Gen. Laws § 10-17-2
• R.I. Gen. Laws § 10-17-4
• R.I. Gen. Laws § 10-17-6
• R.I. Gen. Laws § 6-60-1
• R.I. Gen. Laws § 27-81-3
• R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-5-24
• R.I. Super. Ct. R. Civ. P. 69
• R.I. Dist. Ct. Civ. R. 69
• 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

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