Wage Garnishment Laws in Illinois

• Wage garnishment in Illinois can result from any debt.Paying Bills image by ne_fall_photos from Fotolia.com
  
  Wage garnishment allows creditors the means to obtain payment for a debt that a consumer fails to pay. The creditor attempts to have the consumer’s employer deduct a percentage of his paycheck to settle the owed amount. Garnishment can result from any debt, including torts, breach of contract, credit cards, promissory notes and loans, taxes and child support or alimony. In Illinois, there are certain laws in place for garnishing wages.
  
  

Awarding Garnishment

• Garnishing a person’s wages cannot be initiated before the creditor is awarded a court judgment. This is obtained through a lawsuit. The creditor then files a wage deduction affidavit, where the creditor must certify that a wage deduction notice was mailed to the debtor before the affidavit was filed. The notice must be sent to the last known address of the debtor, and the address must be stated in the affidavit. The creditor must also file with the court clerk and send to the debtor’s employer a set of written questions, called interrogatories. These interrogatories allow the creditor the chance to determine how much the employer owes the debtor over a set period of time. The creditor can also determine the proper amount of non-exempt wages to deduct. The employer has to answer the questions, file them with the court and mail the answers to the creditor and the debtor. The employer must pay the debtor the amount of the employee’s exempt wages and withhold the amount of non-exempt wages. The wage garnishment will stay in place until the judgment debt is paid in full.
  
  

Maximum Threshold

• Illinois law stipulates that a judgment for wage garnishments must be lesser of the following options: 15 percent of disposable income or the amount by which a debtor’s weekly income exceeds 45 times the federal minimum wage. Disposable income, in the first scenario, refers to the amount of money left over after legally required deductions. Certain debts, such as taxes or child support, can result in a higher percentage of garnishment..
  
  

Statute of Limitations

• Enforcement of wage garnishment in Illinois is subject to a statute of limitations, which is longer than in most states, especially for written contacts. The state also allows less of a debtor’s income to be garnished than permitted under federal laws or in other states. For an open account or credit card, the statute is five years. A written contract is up to 10 years while a domestic judgment is 20. Any agreement made in another country is subject to the statute of limitations for the foreign jurisdiction.