Doug Tschauder with Legal Aid of Western Missouri said wage garnishment is an issue in Buchanan County
Wage garnishments are a growing concern in the Nation and one that’s hitting the hardest here in the Midwest according to statistics from ADP Research Institute. Attorney Doug Tschauder with Legal Aid of Western Missouri, said Buchanan County isn’t left out of that statistic.
“Just in Buchanan County typically there’s about 5-thousand cases every year that are filed for consumer debts and those are ranging from credit card debts, to payday loans, medical bills, sometimes cars that have been repossessed so there’s a variety of those types of cases in our area.”
Wage garnishment allows for the legal recover of debts by taking it straight from your paycheck. Those garnishments have been increasing in the United State. According to ADP Research Institute, in the past eight years cases of wage garnishment have increase 121-percent. Tschauder said Legal Aid is seeing more people calling for help because of that.
“We have had a few more people that are coming in because of the wage garnishments. It’s definitely something we’re seeing more of,” he said.
In Missouri Tschauder said people could have their paychecks garnished by up to 25-percent. Even though their paychecks are being withheld, Tschauder said people still have rights, ones they might not be aware of.
“First thing they should do is talk to their employer because if they let their employer know that they have children or other relatives that they’re supporting then their employer is able to take that step and reduce that garnishment down to 10%,” he said. “Unfortunately, if there’s a garnishment in place it usually would run the length of the garnishment which is sometimes 3 months or more but then what they can do is after that garnishment has run they can get in contact with their creditor and negotiate with them and sometimes that payment amount is less than what they were garnished.”
Tschauder says if someone has problems with wage garnishment in Northwest Missouri to contact Legal Aid for assistance (816) 364-2325.