Wage Garnishment After Chapter 7 Filing

[Marshall]

In July 2013 me & my husband filed for Chapter 7. We completed our court date, necessary classes, & signed necessary forms. I was shocked to now find my wages garnished in October 2013 by the LA county sheriff with 4 overdraft fees added by my bank. I have been getting the runaround by my attorney & would appreciate your advice on how to have the funds returned quickly & to possibly have the overdraft fees covered.

[Nulty]

You need to immediately provide the sheriff with the notice of bankruptcy filing. Call the sheriffs office on your earnings withholding order and obtain their fax or email for providing the bankruptcy filing notice. Assuming this debt was incurred prior to filing and that it was listed in your bankruptcy case then it would have been discharged.  Once the sheriff receives the notice of bankruptcy filing or discharge letter they should issue a release of your wage garnishment. Any garnished funds that the sheriff is holding should be returned to you. If the creditor has the garnished funds then you need to contact them and provide the information on the bankruptcy so that they can release the garnished funds to you. It is important that you follow up with the sheriffs office as they are usually very busy and it is not uncommon for the release to take a long time if you do not follow up with them. For more information on wage garnishment in California and bankruptcy you can go to http://www.socaladvocates.com/Bankruptcy/Wage-Garnishments.aspx