If a company charges off a debt, can that same company garnish your wages?
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If a company charges off a debt, can that same company garnish your wages?
Asked on September 2, 2011 under Bankruptcy Law, Georgia
Answers:
FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
Whether or not a debt has been written off or not by a creditor is irrelevant to if it can garnish the debtor's wages through a garnishment as part of the levy process. Many times a company holding a bad debt sues the debtor and obtains a judgment.
The company which is now a judgment creditor will typically assign or sell the judgment to a collection agency. At this time, the judgment creditor for accounting purposes will typically write off the debt itself on its books.
Meanwhile, the collection agency that has been assigned this judgment then tries to levy and execute upon it, sometimes through a wage garnishment.
If your wages have been garnished, most likely there is a judgment as the basis for the garnishment.
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