I have a judgement against me from a vendor that I did not pay. The original amount was $3813. My wages have been garnished and they got to my checking account. My question is ; Are there legal limits as to how much the attorneys can charge in fees? Every time they re-issue the writ, they have added more fees. I have added it up, and they have collected almost $12,000 from me. The last writ has the debt up to $15,000. My intention was to let the garnishment ride until the debt was settled, but it appears to be increasing. They are taking over $1500 a month from my check. I feel like an idiot. What can I do?

The fact that you didn't pay $3,800 is what has led to you paying over $12,000. I don't know about Oregon but my state - Wisconsin - allows a judgment to accrue interest at 12% annually; I believe Oregon allows 9% annually. If you paid nothing for one year, you would have added on $343.17 in interest alone. That doesn't even include attorney's fees and filing fees.

Obviously the amount you have to repay will increase with every garnishment they file for; the attorney is providing their services and they deserve to get paid for it.

Again, I don't know about Oregon, but Wisconsin allows a garnishment to continue past it's time frame of 13 weeks if both the plaintiff and defendant sign an agreement and provide it to the court. That way, the attorney will not have to continually file for garnishment and you will not have to keep paying unnecessary fees.