Wage Garnishment in Arkansas

What Is Wage Garnishment?

Wage garnishment happens when a creditor takes money directly from your paycheck to collect on a debt. For most debts, like credit cards or medical bills, the creditor must file a lawsuit and win in court. After that, the court can send a garnishment order to your employer.

Once your employer gets the order, they must take a portion of your paycheck and send it to the creditor.

The creditor can’t take your whole paycheck. State and federal laws set limits on how much they can take.

Who Can Garnish My Wages in Arkansas?

In Arkansas, several types of creditors can garnish your wages, depending on the kind of debt you owe. For consumer debts — like credit cards, medical bills, or personal loans — the creditor must first sue you in court. If they win the case and get a judgment, they can start the wage garnishment process. This applies to the original creditor, a debt collector, or even a company that bought the debt.

Some creditors don’t need to go to court before garnishing your wages. This includes the IRS or state tax agencies, federal student loan servicers, and anyone collecting court-ordered support like child support or alimony. These types of wage garnishments follow different rules and timelines. For example, family courts handle support orders, and federal agencies can start garnishing without suing you first.

The rest of this article will focus on wage garnishment for consumer debts in Arkansas.

Arkansas Wage Garnishment Process

Consumer creditors must go through several steps before they can garnish your paycheck, including:

• Suing you in court

• Awaiting your response or defenses

• Having a court hearing

• Getting a garnishment order and serving it on your employer

Lawsuit

First, the creditor has to sue you and serve a summons and complaint on you. To serve means to formally deliver papers.

A sheriff’s deputy or a professional process server will usually serve these documents. Creditors can also serve these documents via certified mail.

Answer

After you’re served, you’ll usually have 30 days to file an answer with the court. It’s important to do this. If you don't file an answer, the creditor will get a default judgment against you. This is the same as losing at trial.

Arkansas Law Help can help you generate an answer packet.

If you're worried about responding on your own, but you can't afford a lawyer, you can draft a answer letter for free or a small fee using SoloSuit. They've helped over 280,000 people respond to debt lawsuits, and they have a 100% money-back guarantee.

SoloSuit is an affiliate partner, which means Upsolve may earn a small commission if you choose to use their paid service. This helps keep our services free.

Defenses

If you have a defense, you can include it in your answer. A valid defense could reduce how much you owe or even get the case thrown out.

Here are some common defenses people raise:

• The plaintiff waited too long to sue, and the case violates the statute of limitations (the legal deadline to file a lawsuit).

• The plaintiff or debt collector broke the rules under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) — a federal law that protects people from abusive or unfair collection tactics.

• The debt isn’t yours because of identity theft or a case of mistaken identity.

If you have a defense, you can raise it in your answer. A valid defense could eliminate or reduce the plaintiff’s claim against you.

Hearing

If you go to trial, the judge will hear your case before making a decision.

If the creditor wins the case, the court will issue a judgment in their favor. Then, the creditor can request a writ of garnishment from the court. That's the court order that allows them to garnish your wages.

Garnishment

Your employer will then be served with the garnishment order. If your employer doesn’t comply with the writ of garnishment, they will have to appear in court.

The employer must continue to withhold the calculated amount and send it to the creditor until the debt is fully paid or you’re no longer an employee or you’ve filed bankruptcy.

Can You Be Fired for Having a Garnishment Order?

Under federal wage garnishment law, you can’t be fired for having a garnishment against you. But federal law doesn’t protect you from being hire if you have more than one garnishment judgment against you in a 12 month period.

Arkansas state law protects employees from termination if they have more than one Arkansas garnishment and one of those garnishments is a child support obligation.

How Much of My Paycheck Can Be Taken by Wage Garnishment?

Federal and state laws limit how much of your wages can be garnished. And some types of income are exempt from garnishment. The federal and state exemptions are different, and you can choose which to use.

In Arkansas, federal law is often the better choice. Under federal law, creditors can deduct whichever is less:

• 25% of your weekly disposable income, or

• The amount your weekly disposable income exceeds $217.50, which is 30 times the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour.

Your disposable earnings are what’s left after legally required deductions are made like payroll taxes. Though you may have union dues and 401(k) contributions deducted from your paycheck, these are not legally required so they are part of your disposable income.

No matter how much is deducted, the total amount garnished can’t exceed the judgment. This may include the original past-due debt as well as fees, costs, and interest.

Mechanic and Laborer Exemptions

Under Arkansas law, if you’re a mechanic or laborer you can exempt the first 60 days of your wages as long as it’s less than the personal property exemption. That personal property exemption is $500 if you’re married or head of household. Otherwise, the exemption is $200. You would need to consult with an Arkansas attorney to determine if there’s anything this law can do for you. It may be useful only in extremely rare circumstances.

Can a Creditor Take Your Government Benefits?

Consumer creditors can’t garnish certain government benefits such as Social Security, veterans benefits, and workers’ compensation. 

If these are your only forms of income, you may be considered judgment-proof.

How To Stop a Garnishment in Arkansas

In Arkansas, creditors can continue to garnish your wages as long as there’s a judgment in effect. A judgment creditor can continue to collect on a judgment for 10 years before renewing the judgment. They can keep renewing the judgment every 10 years and attempting to collect the debt until it’s paid in full.

While it’s likely not possible, you can stop the garnishment by paying the debt in full or negotiating a settlement with the creditor. You can also ride out the garnishment until the debt is fully paid. Understandably, neither of these options is very appealing.

For many people, the best way to stop wage garnishments is to file for bankruptcy. Once you file, an automatic stay goes into effect. This stops the garnishment immediately as well as any other debt collection activities. As long as the debt is dischargeable, the garnishment will never come back. For many people, bankruptcy is the best debt relief solution available. 

For a simple straightforward Chapter 7 bankruptcy, Upsolve provides a free tool that will allow you to file your own bankruptcy without having to pay expensive attorneys fees. For more complicated Chapter 7 bankruptcies or Chapter 13 bankruptcies, you may want to consult with an experienced attorney in your area.

Useful Resources if You’re Facing a Wage Garnishment in Arkansas

Arkansas has several legal aid services you can turn to if you're subject to garnishment and need legal assistance. For more information, see the sites below:

• Arkansas Legal Services Online provides self-help forms, an online library, a helpline, and access to legal services for low-income individuals and families.

• The Center for Arkansas Legal Services has eight offices located across Arkansas.

• The Arkansas Attorney General’s office has a useful Guide to Small Claims Court, which touches on wage garnishment.

• The American Bar Association has a free legal resources page.