Bankruptcy & debt
They are taking your paycheck before it ever reaches you.
A wage garnishment does not wait for you to catch up. Filing triggers an automatic stay that stops it, and that is usually the fastest relief available to anyone in this situation.
Free consultation · No obligation · Five Central Arkansas offices
Where this usually starts
By the time it hits your paycheck, it has been coming for a while
A garnishment is the end of a chain, not the beginning. A debt went unpaid, a creditor sued, a judgment was entered, and somewhere in there a notice arrived that was easy to miss or hard to face. Then one payday the number was wrong and it stayed wrong.
What makes it different from every other kind of debt pressure is that you have no say in the timing. You cannot prioritize rent this month. The money is gone before it reaches your account, and the budget you were barely holding together stops working.
This is the one debt problem with an immediate legal answer. The automatic stay that comes with a bankruptcy filing stops a garnishment, and it is not a negotiation the creditor gets to weigh in on.
Why us
We have stopped a lot of these
Lonnie Grimes and our bankruptcy team handle garnishment cases across Central Arkansas, and the work starts the day you call rather than after a long intake process. Bring the garnishment paperwork and a couple of recent pay stubs and we can usually tell you where you stand in one sitting.
Sometimes the answer is to file. Sometimes the judgment behind the garnishment is vulnerable, or the income being taken was exempt in the first place. We will tell you which one you are looking at.
- The automatic stay stops the garnishment
- Collection calls and lawsuits stop with it
- Money taken shortly before filing is sometimes recoverable
- Most people keep their home, car and retirement accounts
What happens next
Three steps, and the first one is a phone call
Bring us the paperwork
The garnishment notice and a few recent pay stubs. Free consultation, no obligation. We work out how much is being taken and what is behind it.
We pick the right tool
Chapter 7, Chapter 13, or a challenge to the judgment itself. Which one depends on your income, what you own and how the debt was obtained.
The garnishment stops
Filing puts the automatic stay in place. Your employer and the creditor are notified, and your next paychecks are yours again.
What is at stake
Every pay period you wait is money you do not get back
A garnishment keeps running until something stops it. Left alone it takes another slice this Friday, and the Friday after that, out of the income you were already short on. Waiting does not preserve any options, it just costs more.
The version where you call is straightforward: your full paycheck comes back, the calls stop, and the debt behind all of it gets dealt with once instead of bleeding out over years.
See how Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 compare if you want the wider picture first.
Common questions
What people ask about garnishment
How fast does a garnishment actually stop?
The automatic stay takes effect the moment your case is filed. In practice the delay is how long it takes your employer and the creditor to be notified and to act on it, which is why we do not sit on a filing once you decide to go ahead.
Can they take my whole paycheck?
No. Federal and state law both cap how much of your disposable earnings can be taken, and some income is protected outright. That is small comfort when rent is due, which is why the point of filing is to stop the garnishment rather than to negotiate the amount.
They already took money. Can I get it back?
Sometimes. Depending on the timing and the amount, money taken shortly before a filing can be recoverable. Bring your pay stubs and the garnishment paperwork to the consultation and we will tell you whether that applies to you.
Can my employer fire me over a garnishment?
Federal law protects you from being fired because of a single garnishment, and it is separately illegal for an employer to fire you because you filed for bankruptcy. If your employer has threatened your job over this, tell us at the consultation.
Do I have to file bankruptcy to stop it?
Not always. There are situations where the underlying judgment can be challenged, where the income being garnished is exempt, or where the debt can be resolved another way. We will tell you honestly if one of those fits, rather than filing a case you did not need.
Get your paycheck back
Call us for a free consultation. Bring the garnishment notice and a few pay stubs and we will tell you exactly what can be done and how quickly.
Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM