How to Stop Wage Garnishment in California After a Judgment

Wage garnishment is an enforcement step, not a lawsuit. A creditor who already holds a money judgment asks the court for a writ of execution, delivers it to a sheriff or marshal, and that levying officer serves an earnings withholding order on the employer. Stopping the withholding means acting on the order itself, and the main tool is a Claim of Exemption. Debt collection sits inside the broader map of California consumer rights, which covers the agencies and statutes behind these procedures.

How much of a paycheck California lets a creditor take

The ceiling is statutory. Under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 706.050, the maximum an employer withholds each week for an ordinary judgment is the lesser of two figures: 20 percent of that week’s disposable earnings, or 40 percent of the amount by which the week’s disposable earnings exceed 48 times the state minimum hourly wage in effect when the earnings are payable. Where the employee works in a city or county with a higher local minimum wage, the statute uses the local rate, which raises the protected floor.

Disposable earnings are what remains after legally required deductions such as income tax and Social Security. Voluntary deductions do not reduce the figure. The California Courts self-help guide describes the practical result as a collector having the employer take up to 20% of your wages to pay the judgment.

The employer, not the court, does the arithmetic. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 706.104 requires an employer served with an earnings withholding order to deliver the employee a copy of the order, the notice to employee of earnings withholding, and the blank forms for making a claim of exemption. That packet names the levying officer and the case number, which is where the exemption paperwork goes.

Filing a Claim of Exemption

A Claim of Exemption asks that some or all of the withheld earnings be released because the money is needed for the support of the debtor or the debtor’s family. It does not argue that the judgment is wrong; it argues about what the wages can be used for.

The claim travels with a sworn budget. Form Financial Statement (EJ-165) lists household income, dependents, and monthly expenses so the levying officer and, if it goes that far, the judge can compare earnings against what the household spends.

1. Read the packet the employer delivered

   The notice to employee of earnings withholding identifies the levying officer, the county, the creditor, and the case number. Those details go on the exemption forms. The packet also states the date the employer began withholding.

2. Complete WG-006 and EJ-165

   The Claim of Exemption states how much of the earnings is claimed as exempt and why. The Financial Statement supplies the numbers behind that claim. Both are signed under penalty of perjury.

3. File with the levying officer, not the court clerk

   Under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 706.105, the claim is made by filing an original and one copy of the claim of exemption and the financial statement with the levying officer. Filing with the court instead is a common misstep that costs weeks.

4. Keep working from a copy

   The levying officer forwards the paperwork and mails the creditor a notice of claim of exemption. Retaining a date-stamped copy of everything filed makes the later hearing, if there is one, much simpler.

What happens after the claim is filed

The creditor gets a short window to object. Under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 706.105, a judgment creditor who opposes the claim files a notice of opposition with the levying officer within 10 days after the date the notice of claim of exemption was mailed. Silence has consequences for the creditor: absent a timely opposition, the levying officer releases the earnings covered by the claim.

If the creditor does oppose, the matter goes to a judge. Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 703.580 places the burden of proof at that hearing on the exemption claimant, and provides that the claim is deemed controverted by the notice of opposition, with both documents received in evidence. The financial statement is the evidence, so gaps in it are what the creditor attacks. The court can grant the exemption in full, deny it, or reduce the withholding to an amount between zero and the statutory maximum.

Other ways a California wage garnishment ends

Exemption is one route. Several others end withholding without any argument about household expenses.

Satisfying the judgment ends it. Once the balance, accrued interest, and allowed costs are paid, the creditor signs an Acknowledgment of Satisfaction of Judgment (EJ-100), which tells the court the judgment has been paid and clears the way for the withholding order to be terminated. A negotiated lump sum or a payment agreement that the creditor accepts in exchange for withdrawing the order reaches the same place by agreement rather than by court order.

Attacking the judgment itself is a different proceeding. A judgment entered after defective service, or one the debtor never learned about, can be challenged by motion in the original case; a garnishment resting on a vacated judgment falls with it. The age of the underlying debt matters too, because a creditor that sued after the limitations period expired has a judgment vulnerable to challenge. The statute of limitations on debt in California sets out those periods and how they are counted.

Bankruptcy stops most collection activity by operation of federal law the moment the petition is filed, including wage garnishments for ordinary consumer judgments. Support obligations are treated differently.

Garnishments a Claim of Exemption does not reach

Not every deduction labeled a garnishment runs through the levying officer. State tax collection is administered separately: the Franchise Tax Board issues its own earnings withholding orders for taxes and other levies, and modification requests for those orders go through the FTB’s MyFTB system or the contact number printed on the order rather than through form WG-006.

Child and spousal support withholding runs on its own statutory track with its own exemption rules and its own priority. Federal student loan and federal agency offsets follow federal administrative procedures.

Collector conduct is a separate question from the amount withheld. A collector that garnishes on a judgment it does not hold, misstates the balance, or contacts an employer improperly may be violating state debt-collection law, and that conduct can be reported. Filing a California Attorney General consumer complaint puts the conduct in front of the state’s public enforcement unit, and the mechanics of filing a California Attorney General complaint against a business are set out separately. A complaint does not pause the garnishment; the exemption procedure and the court remain the route to changing the withholding.