garnishment of wages

[Paul Hayes]

I have received a notice of garnishment of my wages.  It has on the document the amount owed plus 12%.  I would like to know if there is a law protecting me about how much interest they can charge.  I don't know if this 12% is annually, monthly or daily.   I called the collection agency, who is handling this garnishment and asked if I could settle for a lesser amount but they said no..They would only accept the whole amount.  Thanks any help would be appreciated  This is in KY by the way.

[Tom Fox]

Paul -

A recent Kentucky Court of Appeals decision may tell you mush of what you need to know about post-judgment interest. Of the two parts to this process, the first id the civil judgment for damages, which is what results when you are successfully sued, The second part is the wage garnishment to collect that judgment debt. The interest rate owed on the judgment is established and set in the first part , , , the judgment.

University Medical Center v. Beglin, 2012-CA-001208-MR, WL ________, April 25, 2014

In this case, the judgment debtor complained that the court would not reduce the post-judgement interest from the statutory rate of 12%. The Court of Appeals held that the decision on post-judgment interest is within the trial court's discretion. he court also observed that the the interest rate issue must be raised during an earlier phase of the proceedings.

"[T]he fact that a trial court could have chosen to impose a lower interest rate does not necessarily mean that its decision to impose a higher rate was an abuse of discretion."