• North Dakota laws permit creditors to garnish debtors' wages for unpaid debts. Garnishment is typically a court-ordered process where a court orders a debtor's employer (the garnishee) to withhold portions of the debtor's wages and pay that money to a creditor to help satisfy a debt. In some cases, however, garnishment can be done administratively, without a court order. In North Dakota, the four main types of entities that garnish wages are creditors, tax collectors, custodial parents in divorces and the Department of Education for delinquent student loans.
  
  

Creditors

• Creditors must follow North Dakota laws and procedures to garnish wages of debtors who have defaulted on their credit card debt. Default simply means that the debtor has stopped making payments. Once a debtor defaults, a creditor must sue a debtor in a North Dakota District Court. The creditor must obtain a judgment against the debtor before it can move to have the debtor's wages garnished. North Dakota exempts 75 percent of a debtor's wages (or 40 times the minimum wage, whichever is greater) from wage garnishment. A debtor gets an additional $20 exemption for every dependent.
  
  

Tax Debt

• Both the Internal Revenue Service and the North Dakota Office of the State Tax Commissioner can garnish wages of delinquent taxpayers. The IRS can garnish wages administratively, without getting a court order, to collect back taxes. In addition, the tax commissioner may garnish wages for unpaid state income taxes. The wage exemptions that apply to creditors do not apply to tax debt.
  
  

Child Support

• When a noncustodial parent fails to make child support payments in North Dakota, the custodial parent can seek to have that parent's wages garnished. Federal law permits a custodial parent to garnish up to 60 percent of a noncustodial parent's wages. If the noncustodial parent has a separate dependent spouse or child, then the custodial parent may garnish only 50 percent of the noncustodial parent's income. However, if the noncustodial parent is over 12 weeks late on child support payments, the custodial parent can garnish an additional 5 percent of that debt.
  
  

Student Loans

• The Department of Education may garnish up to 15 percent of a student loan debtor's income if the debtor defaults on his student loans. Like the IRS, the Department of Education can garnish administratively without obtaining a court order.
  
  

Warning

• Contact a qualified attorney licensed to practice in North Dakota to find out how the facts of your situation apply to North Dakota wage-garnishment laws, which are subject to change.