Wage garnishment in Montana

Most a card or medical judgment can take

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

Notice of seizure

Served on you within 5 days of the levysource

Time to claim an exemption

10 days, not counting weekends and holidayssource

Exempt pay in the bank

Stays protected for 45 days if traceablesource

How much of my paycheck can be garnished in Montana?

Montana Code 25-13-614 lets a creditor take the lesser of two figures each week: 25% of your disposable earnings or whatever is left above 30 times the federal minimum wage. Disposable earnings are the dollars that remain once taxes and other legally required deductions are gone.

That floor works out to $217.50 a week at the $7.25 federal rate. Montana’s own minimum wage is $10.85 on the Department of Labor state list, but the garnishment law does not use it. A worker bringing home $500 a week can lose $125. A worker bringing home $260 can lose $42.50.

The sheriff’s notice starts your deadline

In Montana, collection on a judgment runs through an execution handled by the sheriff or another levying officer. After the levy, section 25-13-211 requires that officer to serve you a notice of seizure within 5 days, in person or by mail. It names the case and the creditor, says you may be entitled to an exemption and explains how to request a hearing.

Look at how it reached you. If it came by mail, the law treats it as served on the day it was mailed, so your days may already be running before the envelope is opened.

How to stop a wage garnishment in Montana with an exemption hearing

Under section 25-13-212, you file a written request for a hearing with the court that issued the execution. Add a statement describing what you say is exempt and why, along with copies of the papers that back it up, such as benefit letters or pay stubs. On the day you file, mail copies to the creditor or its lawyer and to the sheriff.

You have 10 days, skipping weekends and holidays. The court then must hold the hearing within 10 days of getting your request, counted the same way. A late filing means no exemption claim in that seized property. To talk it through first, call and a garnishment specialist will check the notice date and your filing deadline.

When the state’s child support office takes your pay

Support handled by the state’s child support agency is collected without a sheriff. The agency sends an order to withhold straight to your employer. Under MCA 40-5-412 you count as behind 8 working days after the end of the month a payment was due and the agency may first warn you that withholding starts unless the overdue amount arrives within 8 days.

Once it starts, section 40-5-413 requires a notice served on you in person or by certified mail, showing the amount and how it was worked out. Section 40-5-414 gives you 10 days from that notice to ask the agency in writing for a hearing, naming your reason, such as a wrong back-due figure. The hearing starts by phone and you can ask for one in person. Pay for current support keeps coming out while you dispute only the old balance.

Section 40-5-422 bars your employer from firing, disciplining or refusing to hire you over the withholding, with a fine of $150 to $500 plus back pay.

Is money in my bank account safe from a Montana creditor?

Some of it can be. Under section 25-13-610, wages that were exempt stay exempt for 45 days after you receive them, as long as they can be traced, for example in a checking account. You pick any reasonable tracing method, such as first in, first out.

Section 25-13-608 protects Social Security, public assistance, veterans’ and disability benefits, child support you receive and most IRAs with no dollar cap. Social Security, veterans’ and disability benefits and IRAs can still be reached for child support or alimony you owe.