Wage garnishment in Kansas

Most a card or medical judgment can take

25% of take-home pay or the part above $217.50 a week if lesssource

Debt sold or assigned to a collector

The buyer or agency cannot use wage garnishmentsource

Time to ask for a hearing

14 days after the notice is served on yousource

Out sick more than two weeks

No garnishment until two months after you recoversource

Who can garnish wages in Kansas

Read the name of the creditor on your garnishment order. Under K.S.A. 60-2310(d), when a business sells or assigns an account to another person or to a collection agency, the buyer or assignee is not entitled to the benefits of wage garnishment.

That rule has exceptions. It does not cover child support rights assigned to the state, accounts assigned to the state’s director of accounts and reports or collection contracts for debts owed to district courts. For an ordinary card or medical account that was sold to a debt buyer, though, the statute’s words are direct. If the name on the order is not the company you originally owed, ask about this right away.

How much can be garnished from my paycheck in Kansas?

Kansas sets the limit at the smallest of three amounts: 25% of your disposable earnings (pay after the deductions the law requires), the part of those earnings above 30 times the federal minimum wage ($217.50 a week) or the creditor’s claim as stated in the order.

On $520 a week of take-home pay, the most is $130. The same creditor can issue only one wage garnishment against you in any 30-day period. The employer withholds from pay periods that end during that 30 days. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet 30 covers the federal side of the same limit.

The illness rule

Kansas protects people who could not work because of sickness. If you were kept from your regular job for more than two weeks because you or a member of your family were ill, wage garnishment cannot be used against you until two months after the illness ends.

You have to raise this yourself, by sworn statement (an affidavit). Gather what shows the dates: doctor’s notes, hospital papers or leave records from work. Then file the affidavit in the case that the garnishment came from.

How to stop wage garnishment in Kansas

Right after your employer is served, the creditor must send you a notice. It explains the order and your right to object to how exempt and non-exempt pay was calculated. It must follow the Kansas Judicial Council’s form. The steps come from K.S.A. 60-735:

1. File a request for hearing no later than 14 days after the notice is served on you.
2. When you file, get the hearing date and time from the clerk and write it on the request.
3. Right away, hand deliver or mail a copy to the creditor or to its lawyer if it has one.

The hearing is held 7 to 14 days after you file. You must prove what is exempt, so bring pay stubs and records. Call and a garnishment specialist works through your notice and the 14-day date with you.