Hi all. My sister just received a letter from her payroll department that says they got a request for garnishment from Cap1. The thing is, she was never served or notified. Don't they have to notify you, first? Please help, she's freaking out. Thanks.
She needs to go to the office of the clerk of the court in the courthouse in her home county and ask to see her public record. She needs to see if she has a judgment or not. If she has no judgment then it may be a case of mistaken identity. There is also the possibility that the state she lives in allows prejudgment garnishment but that is extremely rare. Normally it is only used in cases where the plaintiff feels that the person is a flight risk and even then they have to put up a heavy bond with the court in case of error so it is seldom used even in the few states that do allow it.
Unfortunately, it probably depends on you state laws and whether you are paid weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. I my state, one can get notified of the garnishment after the sheriff of presenting party serves the writ of garnishment on the employer. It may take 14+ days until someone gets around to notifying the debtor. There are a couple of things to look into here. As already mentioned, check your local courthouse for any writs filed with a clerk or officer of the court. The other thing to do is ask for a copy of whatever the employer received. This should be in the spirit of your state legal requirements. Keep in mind that in many states, the employer (the garnishee) also holds responsibility for ensuring the proper local/state rules of procedure are followed for garnishment. The penalties for an employer incorrectly garnishing wages can be LARGE. I find it hard to believe that CAP1 itself would get a garnishment without meeting all the requirements of your state. Are you sure the garnishor was CAP1? Or, is it one of the collection companies they are now tied to (Allied, etc.) Some of these collection companies do not exactly play by the rules.
