Can Bankruptcy Stop Wage Garnishment?

Yes. Filing bankruptcy triggers the automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. §362, which immediately stops most wage garnishments; your employer must stop withholding once notified. And when the underlying debt is discharged, the garnishment ends for good. Many Florida workers can also block garnishment without bankruptcy under the head-of-family exemption, Fla. Stat. §222.11.

How the Automatic Stay Shuts Off a Garnishment

A wage garnishment is a court order requiring your employer to send part of every paycheck to a judgment creditor. Under federal law, the creditor in an ordinary garnishment can take up to the lesser of 25% of your disposable earnings or the amount by which your weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage. That is a painful bite out of any budget.

The moment you file a bankruptcy petition, the automatic stay of 11 U.S.C. §362 takes effect. It is a federal injunction that prohibits creditors from continuing any collection activity, and an active garnishment is exactly that. Once the creditor, the court, and your employer are notified of the filing, the withholding must stop, usually within one to two pay cycles. A creditor that willfully keeps garnishing after notice of the stay can be held liable for damages, including attorney’s fees, by the bankruptcy court.

Discharge Makes It Permanent

The stay is the tourniquet; the discharge is the cure. If the debt behind the garnishment (a credit card judgment, medical bill, or personal loan) is discharged in your Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 case, the creditor cannot garnish for it again. Note the exceptions: wage withholding for domestic support obligations like child support and alimony is not stopped by the automatic stay, and those debts are not dischargeable. Many tax debts and most student loans are also not discharged, so collection on them can resume after the case. In some cases, wages taken shortly before the filing can even be recovered, which is one more reason timing your petition with an attorney matters.

Florida’s Head-of-Family Exemption: Fla. Stat. §222.11

Florida gives many workers a separate shield that doesn’t require bankruptcy at all. Under Florida Statute §222.11, if you qualify as “head of family” (you provide more than half the support for a child or other dependent), then all of your disposable earnings are exempt from garnishment if they are $750 a week or less. Earn more than $750 a week? Your wages still cannot be garnished unless you agreed to it in a separate written waiver that meets the statute’s requirements. The statute even protects those earnings for six months after they’re deposited in your bank account, as long as they can be traced.

The catch: the exemption is not automatic. You must assert it, typically by filing a claim of exemption after the garnishment paperwork arrives, and creditors sometimes contest head-of-family status. For workers who don’t qualify, or who face multiple judgments, bankruptcy is often the more complete solution because it attacks the debts themselves, not just one creditor’s collection method.

Stopping a Garnishment in Miami-Dade County

Garnishments against Miami workers are issued through the state court that entered the judgment, but a bankruptcy petition filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida (Miami division, at the C. Clyde Atkins U.S. Courthouse, 301 North Miami Avenue) triggers the automatic stay the moment it is filed. For households that run on tight hourly paychecks, losing up to a quarter of every check can be an emergency. Arturo R. Alfonso P.A. has spent 30 years helping Miami families deal with garnishments and the debts behind them, in English and Spanish. If a garnishment notice just hit your paycheck, a consultation can help you understand whether the head-of-family exemption, bankruptcy, or both may protect your wages.

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