Arizona Wage Garnishment Rules

• Arizona state law determines the legal process for wage garnishments.gavel image by Cora Reed from Fotolia.com
  
  In Arizona, state laws govern the extent to which wages can be garnished by creditors. There are guidelines within the law that specifically determine what percentage of a debtor’s earnings can be garnished, to what degree the earnings are disposable and other additional factors that can affect the circumstances. Complete details can be found in the Arizona Revised Statues, Article 12-1598 (see Resources).
  
  

Writ of Garnishment

• In order to garnish wages in Arizona, a creditor must first obtain a judgment from an Arizona court allowing him to proceed. The creditor then can issue a writ of garnishment, which is a continuing lien on the owed wages. The writ states that the debtor has failed to pay an owed amount and it identifies the garnishee, which is the presumed employer of the debtor. The court then can summon the garnishee and the debtor to appear. How long the debtor will be granted to appear before the court is stipulated in the writ. Typically, the garnishee is given ten days to answer.
  
  

Answering the Writ

• The garnishee answers the writ before the court, providing information including: whether the debtor was employed by the garnishee on the date the writ was served; whether earnings still will be owed within 60 days’ time; the dates of the next two pay days; the frequency of pay periods (weekly, biweekly, etc.); the amount currently owed; whether the debtor already is subject to other wage garnishments from other creditors; and full contact information. Earnings are defined broadly to include all forms of compensation.
  
  

Discharging of Garnishee

• There are several cases in which the garnishee can be discharged. If the court finds that the garnishee did not employ the debtor on the date the writ was served, if the garnishee would not owe the debtor any earnings within 60 days’ time or if the garnishee cannot identify the debtor in good faith, then the garnishee can be discharged.
  
  

Order of Garnishment

• If the garnishee is not discharged and the writ is found fully valid against the debtor, then the court can decide to garnish a portion of the debtor’s statutory net disposable earnings to cover the debts owed to the creditor. The calculation of the portion of wage to be garnished is determined based on the Non Exempt Earnings Statement (NEES) form. This form calculates the federal minimum wage for the applicable payroll period and subtracts it from the actual disposable earnings. The court will garnish either this difference or 25 percent of the actual disposable earnings, whichever quantity is higher.