Location: TN. Update on a previous post. Following a car accident where I was at fault and very foolishly wasn’t insured at the time. It turned out that the other driver did not have collision coverage on her policy and it resulted in her taking me to court and suing me for $25k for damage, medical costs and other expenses. In court, she was given a judgement for virtually the full $25k, all I could pay up front was $5K so I agreed on a payment plan of $300 a month to pay her the rest of the money.
I began paying for a few months but there were some months where I missed payments due to my finances being very tight. Because of the missed payments, I was then informed that she had applied to have my wages garnished at the maximum 25% allowed.
I have now received notice that a garnishment for the maximum 25% has been approved and will now be applied. This will effectively double the amount I had been paying to around $600 a month which will put me in really big financial trouble.
I can accept the reason for a wages garnishment being applied, but I’m wondering if there is any possibility of having the garnishment reduced back down to the $300 a month. There could possibly be things against me with this, as I was still behind with some missed payments. I also recall that when she was suing me, she stressed to the court that she has had to pay out for a replacement car herself, and she needed regular monthly payments to be paid to her for this.
A friend has told me that I have very little chance of getting the garnishment reduced. He says that by missing some payments, I broke the terms of an agreed payment plan. He also says that as she has payments to make herself which she stressed in court when she was suing me, this will likely sway everything in her favor.
Am I likely now stuck with the garnishment at the maximum amount for the reasons stated?
Comments
So one thing to note is you seem to open that this happened because she didn’t have insurance. Even if she had insurance, the insurance company would have sued you after they paid her out for her car through subrogation, and probably would have cost you even more because they would have been vultures about it, charged you legal fees they incurred and nickel and dimed you for every single thing they could.
Your friend is likely correct. You had a payment plan and you broke the terms of it, so the courts needed to step in to ensure this woman got paid. While your finances are tight, likely so are hers given most people don’t have $25K sitting around, and you were the cause, so if somebody is going to be short money, it should be you, not her. She likely had a car payment from having to replace a new car, and by you not paying her, it could have very likely put her behind on payments with the bank she got the loan from, which then causes even more issues in her life.
If you don’t have enough money, your only solution is to get a second job, a higher paying job, a third job, etc.