Wage Garnishment in Utah: What the Law Says and What Bankruptcy Changes

How much of your pay can be garnished in Utah?

Utah R. Civ. P. 64D(a) sets the ceiling on earnings a writ can seize. For a judgment for failure to support dependent children, the maximum is 50% of disposable earnings; for any other judgment, it is 25%. Either percentage is then compared against a second figure, and the writ reaches only the lesser of the two.

That second figure is the amount by which disposable earnings for a pay period exceed the number of weeks in the pay period multiplied by thirty times the federal minimum hourly wage prescribed by the Fair Labor Standards Act in effect when the earnings are payable.

For a judgment arising from a consumer credit agreement, Utah Code § 70C-7-103(2) applies the same lesser-of structure: 25% of disposable earnings, the federal minimum wage floor, or 15% of disposable earnings if the judgment relates to an education loan as that chapter defines the term. A court may not make, execute, or enforce an order in violation of that section.

• Rule 64 and § 70C-7-103(1)(a) both define disposable earnings as earnings remaining after deducting amounts required by law to be withheld, not voluntary deductions.
• Earnings include compensation however denominated and periodic pension or retirement payments (Utah R. Civ. P. 64(a)(5)).

What do Utah statutes and rules require of creditors, courts, and employers?

Rule 64D(a) makes a writ available to seize the defendant's property held by someone else, after final judgment or after a claim is filed and before judgment, though a prejudgment writ requires the grounds in Rule 64D(b) and Rule 64A. Utah Code § 70C-7-102 separately bars garnishing unpaid earnings before judgment in an action relating to a consumer credit agreement.

Under Rule 64D(g), within seven business days of service of the writ on the garnishee, the garnishee (often your employer) must answer the interrogatories under oath, serve the answers on the plaintiff, and serve the writ, answers, notice of exemptions, and two copies of the reply form on you and others its records show have an interest.

Unless the writ or Rule 64D(l) provides otherwise, the garnishee then retains the property until 21 days after service by the garnishee under subsection (g) (Rule 64D(i)). Priority generally follows order of service, subject to the continuing-writ exception in Rule 64D(l)(5) for state overpayment writs.

Which income and property does Utah law treat as exempt?

Utah Code § 78B-5-505(1) lists property an individual is entitled to exempt, and several entries are income rather than things: benefits received or receivable because of disability, illness, or unemployment; veterans benefits; child support; and alimony or separate maintenance to the extent reasonably necessary for support of the individual and dependents. Retirement funds and accounts described in § 78B-5-505(1)(n) are also listed, as is an alternate payee's interest under a qualified domestic relations order.

Subsection (1)(p) is specific to bankruptcy rather than ordinary collection: it covers unpaid household earnings due as of the date a bankruptcy petition is filed, measured as 1/24 of the Utah annual median family income for your household size if earnings are paid more often than monthly, or 1/12 if they are not, using Census Bureau figures adjusted by the Consumer Price Index.

These exemptions are not absolute. Subsections (2) through (5) and § 78B-5-508 carve out specific claims and creditors.

• Subject to the Utah Uniform Consumer Credit Code, § 78B-5-508(1)(a) lets a creditor levy against exempt property of any kind, except unemployment benefits, for alimony, support, or maintenance, for unpaid earnings of up to one month's compensation or its full-time equivalent, or for state or local taxes.
• Section 78B-5-508(2) does not affect the right to enforce a statutory lien or security interest in exempt property.

What protections apply to public retirement and public employment?

Utah Code § 49-11-612(2) says that, except as provided in Subsections (3), (4), and (5), a member's, retiree's, participant's, or beneficiary's right to any retirement benefit or other retirement right accrued or accruing under that title is not subject to garnishment, attachment, execution, or other legal or equitable process. Have a lawyer check those three exceptions before treating a benefit as protected.

Public pay is separate. Under § 78B-5-808, the state and its subdivisions, agencies, and institutions holding property of or owing debts to a defendant, including salary or wages as a public official or employee, may be subject to garnishment and execution, except as § 78B-5-809 provides: process must be served only on the auditor of the subdivision garnished, or its clerk if there is no auditor, and that answer is final and conclusive.

• Sections 78B-5-808 and 78B-5-809 address public-entity garnishees and their service rules, not private employers generally.

Which statutory protections may matter when contesting a Utah garnishment?

Under Rule 64D(h)(1), you or the plaintiff may file and serve on the garnishee a reply to the answers, a copy of them, and a request for a hearing, within 14 days after service of the answers or amended answers; the court may deem it timely if filed before notice of sale or delivery. A reply may challenge the writ's issuance or the answers' accuracy, claim property is exempt, or claim a setoff.

If served with a reply within the 21-day period after its own service under subsection (g), the garnishee retains the property and follows the court's order after the hearing (Rule 64D(i)). Under a continuing writ, Rule 64D(l) governs over contrary general provisions and leaves a hearing to the judge's discretion.

Utah Code § 70C-7-104, in Utah's consumer credit chapter, bars discharging an employee because the employee's earnings have been subject to garnishment in connection with any one judgment; 15 U.S.C. § 1674(a) uses "any one indebtedness." Both are discharge-from-employment provisions.

• Rule 64D(h)(3) treats the garnishee's answers as correct, and the property as not exempt except as reflected in those answers, as to a served person who fails to reply.
• Utah Code § 78A-2-216(4) addresses a plaintiff who garnishes the property of a person other than the defendant without reasonable diligence in determining they were the same individual.

How does filing bankruptcy affect a Utah garnishment?

Filing a petition with the bankruptcy court commences a voluntary case and constitutes an order for relief (11 U.S.C. § 301). The petition itself, not a notice or separate order, operates as a stay, applicable to all entities, of particular acts: under § 362(a)(1), commencing or continuing a judicial, administrative, or other action or proceeding against the debtor that was or could have been commenced before the case, or to recover a prepetition claim; and under § 362(a)(2), enforcing against the debtor or property of the estate a judgment obtained before the case began.

Section 362(b)(2)(C) excepts the withholding of income that is property of the estate or of the debtor for payment of a domestic support obligation under a judicial or administrative order or a statute. Sections 362(c)(3) and (c)(4) narrow or prevent the stay after prior dismissed cases within the preceding year, and under § 362(d) a party in interest may ask the court to terminate, annul, modify, or condition the stay.

• Section 362(c)(2), subject to subsections (d), (e), (f), (h), (c)(3), and (c)(4), continues the stay of acts other than those against estate property until the earliest of case closing, dismissal, or the grant or denial of discharge in the cases subparagraph (C) lists; (c)(1) covers acts against estate property.
• Which exemption list applies is decided by 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(A), not by where you work.

What should you ask a lawyer or legal aid about your garnishment?

This page summarizes the statutes and rules above and links their sources; it does not cover the whole Utah garnishment procedure, the court's forms, or the prejudgment process under Rules 64A and 64D(b). A lawyer or legal aid worker can apply them to the papers you were served with.

Bring the writ, the garnishee's answers, the notice of exemptions, the reply form, your last several pay stubs, and the judgment information statement if you have it.

• Which writ is this: a single garnishment or a writ of continuing garnishment under Rule 64D(l), and when was it served on my employer?
• Is this judgment one for failure to support dependent children, a consumer credit agreement judgment under § 70C-7-103, or something else, and which cap applies?
• Is my reply under Rule 64D(h) still timely, and which exemption in § 78B-5-505 fits my income?
• Does § 78B-5-508 let this particular creditor reach property I would otherwise claim as exempt?
• Given where I have lived, which state's exemptions would 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(A) apply if I filed?
• Have I had a bankruptcy case dismissed in the past year, and how would § 362(c)(3) or (c)(4) affect the stay?

Frequently asked questions

How long does a writ of continuing garnishment last in Utah?

Rule 64D(l)(2) applies a continuing writ to payments from its effective date until the earliest of one year, 120 days after service of a second or subsequent continuing writ, the last periodic payment, the judgment being stayed, vacated, or satisfied in full, or the writ being discharged. It requires a final judgment and non-exempt periodic payments, and governs over contrary general provisions. A continuing writ for the Office of Recovery Services or the Department of Workforce Services to recover overpayments is not limited to 120 days, takes priority over other continuing writs, and if served during another's term tolls that term and preserves all priorities until the state's writ expires.

What are the garnishee's duties under a continuing writ?

Within seven days after the end of each payment period, Rule 64D(l)(3) directs the garnishee to answer the interrogatories under oath, serve those answers on the plaintiff, you, and any other person its records show has an interest, and deliver the property as the writ provides. Any person served may reply as in subsection (g), but whether to grant a hearing is within the judge's discretion under Rule 64D(l)(4).

If I had a bankruptcy case dismissed last year, what happens to the stay?

Section 362(c)(3) applies when 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 the debtor was pending within the preceding year but was dismissed, other than a case refiled under a chapter other than chapter 7 after a § 707(b) dismissal. The stay as to any action taken with respect to a debt, property securing it, or any lease then terminates with respect to the debtor on the 30th day after the later filing. On a party in interest's motion, the court may extend it as to any or all creditors, after notice and a hearing completed before that 30-day period expires, only on a showing of good faith as to the creditors to be stayed. What otherwise survives this text does not settle.

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

Under § 362(c)(4)(A), if a single or joint case is filed by or against an individual and two or more single or joint 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 a § 707(b) dismissal, no stay goes into effect upon the later filing. If a party in interest requests within 30 days after filing, the court may order the stay to take effect, after notice and a hearing, only on a showing of good faith as to the creditors to be stayed; it is effective on the date the order is entered.

Can I use the federal bankruptcy exemption list if I file in Utah?

Utah has opted out of the federal § 522(d) list under Utah Code § 78B-5-513, and the bar turns on residence: it does not bar an individual who is a nonresident of Utah and has been for the 180 days immediately preceding filing. Which exemptions apply is governed by 11 U.S.C. § 522(b)(3)(A), which looks to the law applicable where your domicile was located for the 730 days immediately preceding filing. Opting out does not itself remove other federal exemptions outside § 522(d), or qualifying tax-exempt retirement funds under § 522(b)(3)(C).

What if I moved during the last two years?

Section 522(b)(3)(A) applies the law of the place where your domicile was located for the 730 days immediately preceding filing. If your domicile was not in a single state for that whole period, it applies the place where your domicile was located 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 result of that domiciliary requirement is to leave you ineligible for any exemption, the subsection lets you elect the property specified under § 522(d).

Sources

• Utah R. Civ. P. 64D — Writ of garnishment
• Utah R. Civ. P. 64 — Writs in general
• Utah Code § 70C-7-102 — No garnishment before judgment
• Utah Code § 70C-7-103 — Definitions -- Limitation on garnishment
• Utah Code § 70C-7-104 — No discharge from employment for garnishment
• Utah Code § 78A-2-216 — Fees for writ of garnishment -- Single or continuing
• Utah Code § 78B-5-505 — Property exempt from execution
• Utah Code § 78B-5-508 — Allowable claims against exempt property
• Utah Code § 78B-5-808 — Salaries of public officers subject to garnishment
• Utah Code § 78B-5-809 — Service of process
• Utah Code § 49-11-612(2) — Exemption from legal process
• Utah Code § 78B-5-513
• 11 U.S.C. § 301
• 11 U.S.C. § 362 · official source
• 11 U.S.C. § 522 · official source
• 15 U.S.C. § 1674

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