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Yay! Here comes fallout! BM wants wage garnishment

amodernstepmom's picture
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I posted recently that we knew DH's ex would start playing games or doing awful things, and she did so right after court. She literally walked to the family court office right after court and reopened the CS case with DCSS to get DH's wages garnished.

Now, with a regular employer, this wouldn't be a problem. But DH is a union worker and works on an on-call basis; he has anywhere from 12 to 21 employers over a given year. That means his wages will be garnished from each employer as if they were the only employer; it will result in overpayment, like it did last time, and he could be waiting on repayment until the next month.

We're going to try to work with his union to limit the employers that can be garnished, but we're not sure it will work. 

Does anyone have experience stopping wage garnishment? We think we have a pretty good argument that it will cause hardship, especially since he is not in arrears and he has proof that he pays on time, every time, and we need to show that he's kept it that way in the last 12 months. Plus, the kids will get the money later. It could cause undue hardship for them, as she has childcare payments every week and she'll have to wait. (Since we established in court that she's able to get money from other sources and she has a new job, we're guessing that she has enough money to wait 5-7 days for the child support.)

This is really just to screw with DH. No other reason.

Survivingstephell's picture

Is there anyway he can get a month or two cushion in the account now so his case is stronger?  

Survivingstephell's picture

Is there anyway he can get a month or two cushion in the account now so his case is stronger?  My ex changed jobs and never said anything about it .  I never knew because he paid himself and kept it current.  The FOC handled all the payments and only regarnished when I found out.  

amodernstepmom's picture

Good question. He should be able to do this financially, luckily he had a single good gig that's going to help. We'll look into it, thanks!

twoviewpoints's picture

What's her game plan other than to be a PITA and cause drama? 

I could see having the monthly payment (or weekly or however his CS is ordered to be made) going through the state's CS system disbursement program (where he sends payment to state and state sends to BM). Almost all CS payments in my state go through this program now. It documents the payment and keeps track of all payments made,, late or missing payments blah blah. 

Why the 'need' to insist garnishment considering as to how he is employed and all the numerous employers? What does she believe she is or might gain from this? 

amodernstepmom's picture

We 100% believe that it's to screw with him, because she knows that he relies on repayments because the way it works for him is that he overpays every time. It's vengence and retaliation for having his child support reduced.

hereiam's picture

Look into your state's CS guidelines/statutes and see what it says about garnishing for CS. I once brought it to the judge's attention that per state statute, there was no cause for garnishment, as DH always paid in full and on time. The judge agreed that there would be no garnishment.

Know your rights, present the facts.

amodernstepmom's picture

Thanks. It looks like we might have a case to at least get it stayed. He's paid on time for 12 months and we can prove it.

Rags's picture

For the first 9yrs we rarely received CS all at once each month.  It dribbled in in several chunks  until the  SpermClan finally filled the month’s amount.  They dribbled it to the CSE office and the CSE office dribbled it to us. Since the SperIdiot didn’t pay his own CS this was SperGrandHags manipulative crap.  After 9yrs my bride finally requested an amendment of CA.  He ran from the Constable who was serving him for court and no showed for the hearing.  The DA requested that my wife provide the info on the SpermIdiot and ultimately resulted in CS going  from $133/mo to $785/mo and immediate garnishment.    When he got his first $0 paycheck he ran screaming to court.

Garnishment IMHO should be the default except under extenuating circumstances.  In most  situations it minimizes drama and manipulation of money.

amodernstepmom's picture

I get why it should be done for some folks, for sure. But if DH can't pay bills for a whole month because he's waiting on repayment, and he pays on time already anyways, shouldn't he be free from that burden?

Rags's picture

It certainly seems that your DH's situation falls under the extenuating circumstances category.