The 2003 Montana Legislature has passed a new law requiring places of employment
that garnish wages of an employee to forward the funds garnished to the Sheriff
or Levying Officer within 5 days of the payroll.
FAQs:
Q. Can a Summons from any Montana Court be left with the
spouse of the defendant?
A. No! Montana law requires personal service. The only an Attorney can
accept service for a defendant.
Q. If an employer is served two levies on the same
employee which does he honor first?
A. If both levies are “commercial levies” then they are to be honored by
date & time of service. The first served, the first honored.
Q. What happens if an employer has a ”student loan” levy
in place and a “commercial levy” is served?
A. A “student loan levy” requires only 10% of the employees disposable
earnings be attached, so 15% of the disposable earnings should then be applied
to the “commercial levy”. This then totals the 25% of disposable earnings that
is allowed to be attached by State & Federal law.
Q. When calculating the disposable earnings can I
subtract a 401 deduction or Cafeteria Plan deduction?
A. No! Only those deductions mandated by statutory law are to be used in
obtaining the disposable earnings
Q. Why is the “amount of Judgment owed on the “Notice of
Levy” higher than the amount on the actual “Writ of Execution”?
A. If you look at a Writ of Execution you will see that it is addressed to
the Sheriff or Levying Officer. In the Writ the Sheriff or Levying Officer is
told to attach the amount owed on the judgment plus the costs and accruing costs
of performing the levies. The Notice of Levy prepared by the Sheriff or Levying
Officer includes the estimated fees and costs as they can be reasonably
calculated.
