In Michigan how much are they allowed to garnish, pecentage wise, for medical bills

[rkirby23]

First of all I received a court order to pay an amount to for unpaid medical bills. I did not attend court because I intended on paying. Well, after court, I received something from the court stating that I had to pay. Also, which law office to contact. So I did contact the office, within the time allotted, and I talked to a lady with the idea that I was making payment arrangements. She stated that the minimum payment was $100.00/month and even told me that I had to pay by the 20th of each month. At this point I agreed to that however, I did ask:"what happens if I do not pay?" She at that point stated that I would be in a situation where I would get my wages garnished. Unfortunately, this lady did not have very good customer service skills because the whole time the way she was talking to me, and treating me was in a very disrespectful manner. So, her and I kind of had it out over the phone, and that was the end of it. I mailed my check well before my deadline of the 20th of February and went about my buisiness. It is now March 14th and my boss calls me up and states that she received a letter stating they were going to garnish my wages for these medical bills. So, at that point I called the office and the lady said that I had never set up payment arrangements. In the ladies notes whom I spoke with she wrote that I never "formally" setup arrangements {which is not true} and that because I asked what happened if I didn't pay, she took it as I wasn't going to. Included in her notes was that I was getting upset with her on the phone. The lady who I most recently spoke with did confirm that they did receive the check that I had sent well before the 20th. Yet she also stated again, that I had not set up any payment arrrangements, which is an outrage because I did agree to the terms of the $100.00/month by the 20th. Now my question is: Is there anything I can do to get back on the original arrangements? Since I really did make these arrangements, can she by law just send me to garnishment because she simply dosen't like the questions I asked her? Also, becuase they did accept the check from me, does that make them bound to those arrangements? And finally, I know the law is [In Michigan] that they cannot take anymore than 25% of my wages, is that gross income? is that 25% valid for medical bills or is there a different percentile associated with medical bills?
THANK YOU

 

[Michael Wechsler]

You will need to discuss with this person, or someone else in the office, what "arrangements" means. It may not be as simple as just paying your $100 this one time.

The mistake here was that you should have gone to court. You cannot expect to just let people and the court waste it's time while you, who were notified, will decide to do what you want on your own schedule. I'm not trying to be rude, just telling you what it is and how it appears. To begin, someone had to go through the trouble of taking you to court. Then, after you get called to court, you don't bother telling anyone that you won't show. How is anyone supposed to know what you intend to do? Instead, they sat there and then made a decision based upon not hearing anything from you when you were on notice that this matter was being discussed.

For these reasons you need to be on top of the situation and not avoid dealing with it any longer.

I believe it is 25% after tax with some items that could be excluded.