Pleasant Hill, CA Bankruptcy Law Firms & Lawyers

Anyone, or any entity, with a judgment against you can use any lawful means of collection, including garnishment of wages. Also, damages caused by DUI are not dischargable in bankruptcy. Federal restrictions on the maximum amount that may be withheld from an employee's earnings are directly incorporated into the Wage Garnishment Law. Under these restrictions, the maximum part of the debtor employee's aggregate disposable earnings (below) that may be withheld for any work week may not exceed the lesser of: 25% of the employee's disposable earnings for that week; or The amount by which the disposable earnings for the week exceeds 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage ($5.85 per hour through 7/23/08, $6.55 per hour from 7/24/08 through 7/23/09, and $7.25 per hour thereafter). This means that at least 75% of an employee's disposable earnings are effectively exempt from all nonsupport earnings withholding orders. Moreover, this exemption is automatici.e., no claim of exemption need be made. [CCP 706.050; 15 USC 1673(a); 29 CFR 870.1 et seq]

A dismissal with prejudice does not permit the continued reporting of the debt by a debt buyer or an agent of the plaintiff. It is less clear whether it bars reporting by a prior owner of the debt, not involved in the lawsuit in any way. The reporting may violate both the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The FDCPA violation can simply be filed. In order for the FCRA issue to be privately actionable, send a copy of the document to the credit bureaus requesting deletion.

A recent payment to a credit card will not negatively affect the filing of bankruptcy. Don't pay one creditor over another in anticipation of bankruptcy.