Lawyers who handle collections cases are scrambling for a way to continue their work in the wake of a federal court ruling declaring the state’s post-judgment garnishment statute unconstitutional.
Tuesday’s ruling by U.S. District Senior Judge Marvin Shoob said the statute violated constitutional guarantees of due process by not giving debtors enough notice about the sorts of funds that are exempt from garnishment and how to claim those exemptions. He said the statute also didn’t provide a procedure to adjudicate exemption claims quickly enough.
