Writ Of Garnishment: Fill & Download for Free

I filed a wage claim against a dentist in Eugene, Oregon, on behalf of a woman whom she hired to watch her children. One does not have to pay a babysitter minimum wage if the baby sitter is babysitting in her own home or in the home of the baby, but the dentist had the babysitter at her office watching the kids in a spare room and driving the older one around to activities.The dentist hired a lawyer who drove a Mercedes convertible around town and always wore expensive suits, tie tacks, cuff links, and the like. He does big time criminal defense work in federal court, and for some reason thought he could handle a wage claim against a dentist.The case went to mandatory arbitration. On the day of the hearing we all gathered in the office of an attorney in Springfield, Oregon. We introduced our parties and witnesses, and the other lawyer introduced a law student he had brought along.I introduced my client’s “boyfriend,” and the other lawyer objected to him being there, exclaiming that the arbitration was a confidential matter and that only the parties, witnesses, and attorneys should be allowed in the room. The arbitrator agreed with him and ruled that my client’s “boyfriend” could not observe the hearing. Why he allowed the other lawyer to have a law student there is beyond me.Anyway I asked the arbitrator if he had a copy of the Oregon Revised Statutes in his office, which he did. So I went and got the book, opened it to ORS 36, and found 36.400:“36.420 Notice of arbitration hearing; open proceeding; compensation and expenses. . . . (2) The arbitration proceeding and the records thereof shall be open to the public to the same extent as would a trial of the action in the court and the records thereof”.The arbitrator reversed himself and allowed my client’s boyfriend to observe.The case should have been a slam dunk, and the lawyer should have settled instead of running up his own fees at the expense of his employer-client. The employer has an obligation to keep time records, and they had not done so. The client’s time records were all handwritten notes, but they were the best evidence, and they showed she got less than minimum wage.I called a former bookkeeper of the dentist as a witness who testified, among other things, that she was familiar with the reputation of the dentist and her husband which was, in a single word, “liars.” The defendant called a current bookkeeper who barely helped the dentist. As is often the case, that witness eventually called me when she left employment of the wage thief.Perhaps my favorite moment came when the overdressed lawyer near the end of the hearing stood over me and shouted, “You need to understand that this proceeding is subject to all the laws and the rules of evidence...“ or something to that effect. I just smiled and said, “No, it’s not.” That lawyer had not even looked at the Uniform Trial Court Rules. If he had he would have read 13.180:“13.180 CONDUCT OF HEARING (1) Arbitration hearings shall be informal and expeditious. The arbitrator shall exercise reasonable control over the mode and order of interrogating witnesses and presenting evidence so as to do the following: (a) Make the interrogation and presentation effective for the ascertainment of the facts. (b) Avoid needless consumption of time. (c) Protect witnesses from harassment or undue embarrassment. (2) A witness shall be placed under oath or affirmation prior to presenting testimony, a violation of which oath shall be deemed contempt of court, in addition to other penalties that may be provided by law. The arbitrator may question the witness. The extent to which the rules of evidence will be applied shall be determined in the discretion of the arbitrator.”The arbitrator awarded me some money, and we did not appeal. The defense lawyer told me that his client, the dentist, could not afford to pay the award all at once and would need to make payments. I have seen this before and have gotten into the files of another employer’s attorney. Every time the employer made a payment toward the judgment the lawyer took $100.00 for processing the paperwork. I really did not care to take payments, I did not believe the dentist was unable to pay, and I was not interested in helping that lawyer make more money, so I decided to issue some writs of garnishment.I called my dentist’s office and asked the billing person for the names and mailing addresses of the three largest insurance companies that she billed. I sent a writ of garnishment to each of those insurance companies, and when they were delivered I got a call from the well-dressed attorney who asked me if he brought me a check for the full amount would I recall my writs and satisfy the judgment. Sure enough, the money was “brought to me, and placed at my feet.”{{meta.title}}

In 28 years of owning rental properties, there have been two occasions when I kept a tenant’s security deposit.In both cases, I had done a complete walkthrough with the tenants before they moved in. We had taken detailed notes of everything, and though it was before the era of smart phones with cameras, I did take photos with my Nikon camera.In both cases, the tenants had done some serious damage to the property. The first tenant, I discovered, was not actually living in the property. He had rented it for his mistress and her two kids. The woman had spilled neon-pink nail polish on the carpets, the kids had drawn “pictures” with color crayons on the walls and on the carpet. There were several places where the walls had deep dents from banging furniture or other implements into them, and in some places, it had broken through the drywall. There were two holes in the walls, about 3 inches in diameter.In the other house, the tenant had anger issues. Whenever he got angry at his girlfriend, he’d put his fist through the wall. It was an old house, built in 1890 using lath-and-plaster construction. By the time I discovered it, there were about 15 or 20 holes where the plaster had been knocked off exposing the lath underneath, and in about half of those holes, the lath strips behind were splintered. But the worst was when he had put his foot through the closet door, a beautiful single-panel hinged door with a single piece burlwood panel in it. (His comment to me was, “Well at least I didn’t hit her!” as if that was something to be proud of. I nearly decked him right there!)In both cases, the security deposit did not cover the cost of repairs. (The replacement closet door had to be custom made to match the original, which matched the rest of the doors in the house. It cost nearly $1200.) So after I had the repairs done, I presented each tenant with the bill.The first tenant ignored me. I wrote him a letter urging him to work with me. I warned him that if I had to sue, his wife would probably find out about his mistress, and he’d probably have a judgement on his record that would have a negative effect on his credit and his ability to rent or purchase. He replied, “Fuck you. Go sue me!”So I sued in small-claims court and was awarded the full amount, in part because although he was served, he didn’t show up. I served him with the judgement, asked for payment and waited the requisite 60 days. On the 61st day, I returned to court to ask for a writ of garnishment to attach his wages, and was granted it.I sent my service guy to serve the garnishment papers to his employer. The guy served the employer by giving the documents to the front-counter employee, a perfectly legal thing to do. Problem was that that front-counter employee was my now ex-tenant, who realizing what it was, simply tore them up and tossed them in the trash. Presumably, he thought it would end the matter.I waited the requisite 60 days, then called the employer on the phone. I explained who I was, what the situation was, and that he was now liable for the entire debt. He asked to meet with me, and when we did, I showed him the original judgement against his employee, the writ of garnishment and the signature of the employee who accepted the service. That was when I found out that it was my ex-tenant (his signature was illegible and I never connected it to him.)The employer was furious and paid me the full amount on the spot. Then, he let the employee work for another two and a half weeks, until he had earned enough to pay the debt, then fired him and kept his pay. I later learned that he was embroiled in a messy divorce (his wife found out), his “mistress” had dumped him because he could no longer support her and her kids, and he was renting a room from a buddy.In the second case, the tenant refused to pay me, so I sued him too. I followed protocol by properly serving him. He immediately filed countersuit for $5000, claiming “trespass” because I came onto my own property without notice. He didn’t show for court, and the judge awarded me the full amount, then laughed at the countersuit saying, “How can one trespass on one’s own property?!”Of course the tenant didn’t pay and I had to garnish his wages. But I couldn’t find out where he worked. Eventually, I turned it over to a collection agency. One day, on a whim, I searched Facebook and viola! there he was! He was thrilled because he had just landed a job with a large company. BINGO!I notified the collection agency who immediately began garnishment proceedings. He contacted them and screamed up and down, cursing and threatening them for “taking food out of my baby’s mouth”. After about 2/3 of the debt was paid, he quit his job (or was fired; I never knew).About a year went by, and the collection agency found out that he had taken another job as a limo driver. They immediately garnished his wages, and the limo company fired him for lying on his application. They also paid a few hundred from his paycheck.After that, we lost track of him, and I have written off the remainder of the debt as a loss.I’m very careful to screen my tenants thoroughly. In both cases, the tenants had impeccable credit history, no criminal history and outstanding references. And in both cases, they decided to trash their credit and rental history on my watch. Now, they both have bad credit ratings, an eviction on their records, a judgement against them and a garnishment against them on their records. (Not to mention the divorce and damage to the kids and family…)All because they tried to skip out on paying less than $2500 in damages.Go figure!

Pretty much any creditor can garnish your paycheck in Florida if they sue you and get a court judgment called a writ of garnishment. Once they present that writ to your employer, the employer has to comply.I believe that Florida follows Federal rules about how much can be garnished: the lesser of 25% of your after-tax pay, or the amount that your weekly after-tax pay exceeds thirty times the federal minimum wage. (That second part only really helps if you're working part-time.)Florida does provide one exemption not found in federal law: if you make less than $750/week, and are the "head of family", meaning you're supporting a dependent, you can be excused from garnishment. To take advantage of this exemption, you have to file an affidavit with the court shortly after receiving your writ of garnishment.Also, note that your employer can charge you $5 per paycheck for the hassle of dealing with a garnishment order, as if you didn't have enough to deal with.If a credit card company is threatening to do this, take them seriously. Assuming they haven't already started the process, try hard to negotiate with them to work out a voluntary payment plan instead.