You may have heard of it: wage garnishing, where a judge allows someone to take part of your paycheck for a debt you didn’t pay, but is it always legal to do that? It’s why one South Florida woman called Help Me Howard with Patrick Fraser.
You don’t have to ask Leonie if she likes her job. Her reply when she tells you where she works lets you know.
Leonie Buchanan: “A fabulous preschool in downtown Fort Lauderdale called First Kids Academy.”
Leonie is the preschool director at the academy in Fort Lauderdale.
Leonie Buchanan: “This is my livelihood. This is what I love to do. This is my passion.”
And as passionate as she is about kids is how surprised she was at a letter that came to the school.
Leonie Buchanan: “I’m getting a court order saying my paycheck is going to be garnished for a car we no longer have since 2015.”
A Miami-Dade judge signed an order allowing a collection agency to take a portion of her paycheck till they got $13,909 from Leonie and her son because she co-signed on a loan for her son to buy a used — back in 2015 — piece of junk car.
Leonie Buchanan: “So he called the finance company and said, ‘Hey, the car isn’t working, can you come and take the car back,’ which they did, they took the car. I thought that was over.”
“Thought that” because Leonie said she never heard from anyone about the car or the court hearing.
Leonie Buchanan: “Nothing. I was never given a court date to appear in court. It’s just here’s a document, garnish your pay, so here we are.”
And being told in front of your co-workers they were garnishing your wages is not pleasant.
Leonie Buchanan: “It was embarrassing. I– this is something I had, not in the million years, what I expected.”
Not only embarrassing, financially it’s difficult.
Leonie Buchanan: “I do have a house. I’m making payments. I am. I have bills of cell phone bills. I have other bills that, you know, insurance bill, car insurance, all these other bills just to maintain, plus food. It’s not easy, you know, buying groceries for two teenage sons, this will be a significant blow.”
But a judge has ordered it, and now Leonie has to endure it, or does she, Howard?
Howard Finkelstein, 7News Legal Expert: “If you have an unpaid debt, whether you borrowed the money or co-signed for someone else, they can come after you years later, but they have to serve you with the lawsuit, and you have a right to respond, and they can only garnish your wages if the judge says yes.”
And in Leonie’s case there was a major mistake.
There was a judgement against Leonie’s son, but they can’t garnish his wages because he is a stay-at-home dad.
However, a Miami-Dade judge made a mistake by signing the order to garnish Leonie’s paycheck because there was no judgement against her.
The attorney who asked the judge to do that thanked us for discovering what he called an inadvertent error, and the garnishment order was dissolved.
Leonie Buchanan: “It’s a relief to know there’s nothing hanging over my head. The embarrassment is gone, and now I’m absolutely just relieved I got the help.”
Got help she needed after she delivered her problem to Help Me Howard.
Leonie Buchanan: “I am absolutely glad I called Help Me Howard. You know, after talking to God first, he said, call Help Me Howard and so I did.”
Well, I have never heard it put that way. That’s nice, Leonie.
And the attorney who got the judge to sign the garnishment of Leonie’s paycheck could get in trouble with the bar, but he quickly apologized and corrected the mistake, so let it go.
Getting schooled by someone? Ready to teach them a lesson? Loan the headache to us. We don’t garnish wages, just dissolve problems.
With this Help Me Howard, I’m Patrick Fraser 7News.
CONTACT HELP ME HOWARD:
Email: helpmehoward@wsvn.com
Reporter: Patrick Fraser at pfraser@wsvn.com
Miami-Dade: 305-953-WSVN
Broward: 954-761-WSVN
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