Does anyone know if it is possible for a creditor to garnish wages for medical debt/bills? I have tried to research this, and it looks like a garnishment can only be executed if a court order is issued....wouldn't one be notified by the court if there was a court date regarding a medical bill? I'm confused...

By Annie2 on Friday, June 20, 2008 - 07:37 pm:

I'm not sure. With our medical bills, I've called the hospital to set up a payment plan. Most months, I could only pay $25 sometimes $50. Then in two years I called to ask them if they would settle on an amount and they did this for me. If I paid off such an amount the remainder would be negated.

By Marie on Friday, June 20, 2008 - 09:52 pm:

In Oklahoma they can. They are garnishing dh's for medical bills from his back surgery.

By Ginny~moderator on Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 12:09 am:

Generally it is a requirement that you be notified if a lawsuit for debt collection or any other reason is filed against you, and generally a court notifies you if a judgment was issued against you. But, collection agencies and other creditors notoriously are fairly cavalier about following the notice rules. Most states require either personal service or certified mail service, but if you've moved a notice, if it was served/sent, might not be forwarded - if it was served at all. If it was a small claims court matter (in Pennsylvania, under $10,000), any hearing would be fairly perfunctory and even if you were notified and appeared you'd have a hard time getting the court to agree with you or to do other than issue a judgment. You can check with the department of records at the county seat, as all judgments have to be entered, and they would have details such as date, amount, and the "docket number" of the lawsuit. If your employer is indeed garnishing your wages, you can be fairly certain that a judgment was issued - it is extremely unlikely that an employer would honor a garnishment otherwise. I do know that not all states will allow garnishments for debts - Pennsylvania only allows wage garnishment for unpaid taxes and child support - but I suspect most states do allow such garnishments.

By Tarable on Saturday, June 21, 2008 - 01:38 am:

Texas (as far as I know) only allows garnishment for taxes, child support and student loans (i believe these are the government regulated ones).