Federal Student Loan Wage Garnishment

Everettswife · #1 11-01-2007, 10:06 PM

My husband had a student loan back in 1995-1996. He defaulted on that loan obviously. Today we found out that his wages are going to be garnished 15%. *The loan was taken out in GA or AR but we now live in Florida. *He is the Head of Household for our family which includes our 9 month old daughter. We are barely paying our bills as it is and are seeking advice from anywhere right now on this matter. He spoke to the DOE collection agency today who state that Florida Statute 222.11 does not apply b/c this is a Federal loan. *We have not received any Judgment papers in the mail and are going to try to contact his HR department tomorrow to see if we can get a copy from them. What we've been told so far is that our only option is to file an Objection based on Hardship. But that won't stop the garnishment immediately. I think that is all we know so far.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help.

aaron · #2 11-02-2007, 05:54 AM

You need to find out (a) where the judgment was entered, (b) the terms of the garnishment order, and (c) from the court file, how they obtained a judgment without notice to your spouse.

Everettswife · #3 11-02-2007, 06:37 AM

Hi Aaron, thank you so much for responding so quickly. I'm going to ask what may be a dumb question. How do we find this information out other than calling his employers corporate office? Also, after we find out all of this info what is our next step? Finally, what other recourse do we have?

Thank you so much again.

aaron · #4 11-02-2007, 07:04 AM

Try getting information form whomever is threatening the garnishment, or getting a copy of any garnishment order served on the employer, and follow up based on that.

Your recourse, if any, will depend upon what you discover.

Everettswife · #5 11-02-2007, 10:30 AM

My husbands been on the phone all morning with the DOE office and their collection office. They keep telling him they cannot give him information over the phone, they won't fax the info, and he should have received papers in the mail. We've received no papers in the mail. He has managed to find out exactly what loan they were talking about, the loan amount, and the additional fees (collection) amounts. That's it. I was told by someone else that we need to contact the Judge's office who filed the Judgment, but we can't get that information from anyone, and they want to start garnishing his very next paycheck 15%.

Everettswife · #6 11-06-2007, 10:57 AM

Hi again Aaron, we were vinally able to get a copy of the Order. It says "Unitd States Government Wage Garnishment Order (SF-329B)". It has all of the information, his SSN, amount of debt, creditor info. He has spoken to the creditor many times and they only say there is nothing they can do. Now that we have the Order, what is our next step? Is there any way for us to stop the garnishment? Is there a law in favor of a head of household with 2 dependents, a single income family?

Thank you for all your help.

aaron · #7 11-06-2007, 11:09 AM

You need to find out (a) where the judgment was entered, (b) the terms of the garnishment order (which you should be able to determine by reading it), and (c) from the court file, how they obtained a judgment without notice to your spouse.

Everettswife · #8 11-06-2007, 02:34 PM

(a)Is a Judgment and Garnishment Order the same thing? As far as a Judgment he was told a Judgment is not needed b/c this is Federal. The only people we are able to obtain any information from is the Credit Corporation (VanRu). The DOE will not give us any info b/c the Credit Corp has the account now. The only information on the actual Garnishment Order is the date of the Order, Date Mailed to Employer, Credit Agency Tracking No., Employee Name, SSN, Employer, Mailing address, Creditor Agency & mailing address, contact name & number, and amount due.
(b) As for the terms of the Garnishment, they are not on the paper, but we were told that his check will be garnished 15%, the maximum allowed, starting tomorrow.
(c) The Credit Corp says we should have received the papers already in the mail. Which means they are saying that they have notified us.

We cannot seem to get any information about this other than from VanRu who do not want to help us at all. We have filed a request for a Written Hearing based on his employment status, less than 1 year employed and fired from his previous employment for lack of available work.

aaron · #9 11-06-2007, 02:40 PM

A) No.

B) Then explore the court file as instructed.

C) Then explore the court file as instructed.

Everettswife · #10 11-06-2007, 03:46 PM

What court file? There's isn't any court/judge information on the Order paper. Should we just take the garnishment order to the courthouse here or something? I don't mean to be a pain but I need just a little more direction on this.