How to Stop Wage Garnishment - Video
Feb 27, 2025
Hi, I'm attorney Trevor Pedersen with the Pedersen Law Office, and I'm here to talk to you about how to stop a wage garnishment in the state of Wisconsin. First thing you need to know is what a wage garnishment is. A wage garnishment is a court order given to your employer stating that 20 percent of your disposable income is required to be sent to the creditor who has a judgment against you.
The way the court defines disposable income is it's your gross paycheck minus only the taxes. And that's where they calculate the 20%. If you have other deductions coming out, such as insurance, again, it is calculated based on only after taxes.
The first thing you have to figure out is if you're exempt from being garnished. In the state of Wisconsin, there's a couple of times you cannot be garnished. For one, is if your family income is below the poverty guideline. For a single person in the state of Wisconsin in the year 2024, the poverty guideline is 15,060 per year.
For a family of two, it's 20,400. And of course it goes up from there based on your family size. Another time your wages cannot be garnished is if you're receiving some type of government assistance. This could be badger care, this could be food stamps, or some other assistance that qualifies. If you're receiving that, and up to six months after receiving that, you're not allowed to be garnished in the state of Wisconsin.
Another time you cannot be garnished is if your only income is Social Security or retirement, as those are not garnishable. If you are not exempt from being garnished, then maybe you'd want to look into doing a Wisconsin Chapter 128.
A 128 is a three-year, court ordered program to repay your debts at a 0 percent interest. And you get to pick and choose what debts you put into the program. Now, this works out really well if you don't have a huge amount of debt, but you just need that time to pay off the debt. And again, 36 months, 0 percent interest, it works out pretty well if you can afford it.
Now, if for some reason you're unable to afford your debts over a 36-month repayment window at zero interest, then it might be time to look at something bigger, such as doing a bankruptcy. Nobody likes to think about the idea of doing a bankruptcy. It's kind of a scary idea. And it's usually because people don't know how bankruptcy works.
People worry about if they lose their house, or if they lose their car, or what would happen if they have a vehicle with a loan on it, or what if they have a recreational vehicle. These are all things that are able to be dealt with by talking with a bankruptcy attorney. If you sit down with a bankruptcy attorney, they will go through your situation and say, No, you can keep this car.
We can reaffirm, or you could surrender it if you don't want to.You can keep your house. You're allowed to keep so much equity in a house, so much equity in a car, allowed to keep all your household goods, a lot of circumstances, you can keep your recreational vehicles depending on their values and everything.
So without knowing your situation and what will happen, you can't be afraid of a bankruptcy. You have to actually sit down, talk with an attorney and figure out what would happen in your case. If you would like to know more information about how to stop a wage garnishment, or if you'd like to use my office to help you with any of these programs, such as the chapter one 128 or a possible bankruptcy, give me a call.
