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  • Nov 21, 2007, 10:30 PM
    Cannot Find Direct Answer
    Wage Garnishment and Self Employed
    I am an Indiana resident. I have searched everywhere and have only found bits and pieces of information to answer my questions. However, I cannot satisfy my questions completely. Please help!

    Situation: My husband has a court ordered judgment against him and his company, let's call it ABC, for monies owed. The creditor wants to garnish my husband's wages. However, he works as an independent contractor, trucking products for a specific company, let's name it WXY. His company, ABC, receives payment (in ABC's name, not my husband's) for transporting WXY's goods by truck to WXY's customers . His company is paid on a weekly basis as long as he submits his trip invoices by the cut-off day/time for the week. The paid amount varies each week.

    Question: Can the creditor garnish ABC's earnings? What if the judgment is in both ABC's name and my husband's?

    Question: If so, would this fall under the federal wage garnishment laws, where the creditor could only receive the maximum of 25% of each weekly payment made to ABC?

    Situation: WXY has recently been served an "Order" from the courts stating that ABC, my husband (defendents), and WXY (garnishee-defendent) appear before the court on said date and time to answer as to the defendants' non-exempt property subject to proceedings supplemental. The garnishee-defendent (WXY) is ordered to answer the interrogatories attached to the Order.
    WXY is currently holding every dime of what ABC earned during the past two weeks and every trip invoiced now and in the future, stating that the wage garnishing seems inevitable.

    Question: Is this legal for WXY to hold monies owed to ABC prior to being served with the court ordered wage garnishment order?

    Question: It was my understanding that wage garnishment could not be ordered against a company, or a person who is acting as an independent contractor. Am I correct? My husband is not an "employee" of WXY, whereas WXY does not withhold taxes, etc. His company is under a "Carrier Agreement" with WXY, where he agrees to transport WXY's products to WXY's customers under his own USDOT number and authority. Basically, WXY is my husband's customer, not his employer.

    Thank you for ANY assistance you can promptly give.

    Sincerely,

    CC
  • Sep 24, 2010, 08:03 AM
    jcsites
    It was my understanding that wage garnishment could not be ordered against a company, or a person who is acting as an independent contractor. Am I correct?

    This is years too late for your question, but no, you are not correct. The pay of an independent contractor can indeed be garnished. What WXY did incorrectly was to withhold ALL of the pay when they received the interrogitories - they should only have withheld the amount allowed by Uniform Consumer Credit Code.

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