Garnishment in Louisiana: Wage Limits, Exemptions, and Defenses

In Louisiana, wage garnishment lets a creditor who has already won a court judgment against you take up to 25% of your disposable earnings each pay period, with higher caps for child support and spousal support and a long list of income and property the law puts off-limits entirely. The creditor cannot skip the courtroom for ordinary debts, cannot touch protected federal benefits, and cannot start withholding until a specific set of steps has been served on your employer or bank.

A Creditor Needs a Judgment First

Garnishment begins only after a creditor sues you and wins. With a judgment in hand, the creditor asks the court for a writ of fieri facias, then files a separate garnishment petition naming the third party (the “garnishee”) that holds your money. For wage cases, that’s your employer. For bank cases, it’s your financial institution.¹

Attached to the petition is a set of sworn interrogatories the garnishee must answer. For employers, the questions cover whether you work there, your pay rate, how often you’re paid, and whether any other garnishments are already lined up.² The sheriff serves the petition, citation, interrogatories, and a notice of seizure on the garnishee, and the creditor must separately notify you in writing that a garnishment petition has been filed.³ The seizure takes effect the moment the garnishee is served.

Wage garnishment in Louisiana is continuing. One writ and one set of interrogatories covers every paycheck until the debt is paid or the court intervenes. If you leave the job, withholding stops automatically, though it can resume if you return to the same employer within 180 days.⁴

How Much of Your Paycheck a Creditor Can Take

For most consumer debts, Louisiana protects 75% of your disposable earnings. A creditor can take at most 25%. If that 25% would leave you with less than 30 times the federal minimum wage for the pay period, the law protects the larger amount instead. With the federal minimum at $7.25 an hour, that floor works out to $217.50 per week.⁵ The state cap mirrors the federal Consumer Credit Protection Act.⁶

What “Disposable Earnings” Means Here

The 25% is calculated on your disposable earnings, not your gross pay. Federal law defines disposable earnings as what’s left after amounts “required by law to be withheld,” meaning federal and state taxes, Social Security, and Medicare.⁷

Louisiana’s definition is more generous. State law also subtracts reasonable deductions already being taken in the ordinary course of business for retirement, medical insurance, and life insurance, plus amounts legally owed to your employer.⁵ Because those extra deductions shrink the base before the 25% is applied, more of your pay stays with you than in a state that uses only the federal formula.

Child Support and Spousal Support Cut Deeper

Support obligations follow their own math. Louisiana lets a creditor garnish up to 50% of disposable earnings for current or past-due child support, and up to 40% for spousal support (the state exempts 60% in the alimony case).⁵

Federal rules add another layer. Under the Consumer Credit Protection Act, the support cap depends on whether you’re currently supporting another spouse or child: 50% if you are, 60% if you aren’t. If you’re more than 12 weeks behind, add another 5%, which lifts the ceiling to 55% or 65%.⁶ Someone who owes back child support and isn’t supporting anyone else can see nearly two-thirds of their disposable pay taken.

Bank Accounts Work Differently

When a creditor comes after a bank account instead of a paycheck, the same petition-and-interrogatories process applies, but the seizure is a one-time snapshot. The bank accounts only for what was in the account at the moment it was served. Future deposits are not swept up the way future paychecks are.¹

Automatic Protection for Federal Benefits

If you receive Social Security, veterans’ benefits, federal retirement, or similar payments by direct deposit, your bank is required to shield them automatically. When a garnishment order arrives, the bank has two business days to review your account for federal benefit deposits made during the prior two months. It then calculates a “protected amount” equal to the lesser of the total federal benefits deposited in that window or your current balance. That protected amount stays fully accessible, and you don’t have to file anything to claim it.⁸

Anything above the protected amount can still be frozen. If those additional funds are also exempt under state or federal law, you’ll need to file an opposition with the court to get them released.

Federal Debts That Don’t Need a Judgment

Three categories of federal debt skip the state courtroom entirely, and Louisiana’s 25% cap doesn’t apply to them the same way.

IRS tax levies. The IRS can levy wages administratively, without suing. The levy is continuous and keeps applying to every paycheck until resolved. The amount you keep depends on filing status and dependents. For 2026, a single filer with no dependents keeps $309.62 per week; a married joint filer with two dependents keeps $1,026.93 per week. Taxpayers 65 or older keep an extra $78.85 per week.⁹ The IRS can also seize bank funds directly, and those levies are not bound by the 25% wage rule that applies to private creditors.¹⁰

Defaulted federal student loans. The U.S. Department of Education can garnish up to 15% of your disposable income on loans in default for at least 270 days. The $217.50 weekly floor still applies. The Department must give you notice and a chance to request a hearing first, but no court order is required.

Property and Income the Creditor Can’t Touch

Louisiana Revised Statutes 13:3881 lists a broad range of exempt property. The categories most likely to matter in a garnishment fight:⁵

Wages: 75% of disposable earnings, or 30 times the federal minimum wage, whichever protects more. Reduced to 50% for child support and 60% for spousal support.
Motor vehicle: up to $7,500 in equity in one vehicle per household, with a separate $7,500 exemption for a second vehicle modified for a disability.
Trade tools: tools, instruments, books, and one utility trailer necessary for your livelihood.
Household goods: furniture, appliances, clothing, bedding, kitchenware, heating and cooling equipment, washers, dryers, refrigerators, and freezers used by the family.
Pets and animals: all dogs, cats, and household pets, plus poultry, fowl, and one cow kept for family use.
Firearms: up to $2,500 total value in firearms, ammunition, and accessories.
Wedding and engagement rings: rings worn by either spouse, up to $5,000 per ring.
Tax credits: the federal earned income tax credit and the refundable child tax credit, except when seized by the Louisiana Department of Revenue or for child support arrears.
Federal benefits: Social Security, veterans’ benefits, and similar payments, protected by federal law from most debt collection.

Louisiana also shields up to $35,000 of equity in your home under its homestead exemption; if the seizure stems from a catastrophic or terminal illness or injury, the exemption covers the home’s full value based on its worth one year before the seizure.¹¹

How to Fight a Garnishment

You have three main lines of defense, and they can be combined.

Attack the Underlying Judgment

Garnishment collapses if the judgment behind it does. You can move to vacate a judgment obtained by fraud, one entered after defective service of the original lawsuit, or one resting on a factual or legal error. The burden is on you to prove the defect. If the court agrees, the garnishment falls with it.

Point to Procedural Errors

Even a valid judgment doesn’t excuse sloppy garnishment paperwork. Improper service on the garnishee, failure to notify you of the petition in writing, and errors in the interrogatories are all grounds to quash. Serving garnishment documents by mail when personal service was required is a common example.³

Claim an Exemption

If the funds being taken are exempt, file an opposition with the court. This is the standard defense in bank cases, where an account holding Social Security or other protected income gets swept along with everything else. Bring the records that show where the money came from. If the exemption applies, the court will order the funds released.

Your Job and Your Employer’s Role

An employer served with a garnishment writ has to comply: calculate the withholding under Louisiana’s more generous disposable-earnings definition, deduct the statutory per-pay-period processing fee from the non-exempt portion, and forward the money through the sheriff, marshal, or constable.¹² An employer that ignores the writ can have judgment entered against it for the full debt, plus attorney fees and costs.¹³

Federal law makes it illegal to fire you because your pay is being garnished for a single debt. That protection comes from the Consumer Credit Protection Act, and it covers the first garnishment only. If a second, unrelated creditor also garnishes your wages, the federal shield no longer applies.¹⁴

1
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Art 2411 – Garnishee Effect of Service Financial Institutions
2
Justia. Louisiana Revised Statutes 13-3924 – Interrogatories
3
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Art 2412 – Method of Service Delay for Answering
4
Justia. Louisiana Revised Statutes 13-3923 – One Writ and One Set of Interrogatories
5
Justia. Louisiana Revised Statutes 13-3881 – General Exemptions from Seizure
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1672 – Definitions
8
eCFR. 31 CFR Part 212 – Garnishment of Accounts Containing Federal Benefit Payments
9
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 1494 – Tables for Figuring Amount Exempt from Levy on Wages Salary and Other Income
10
Internal Revenue Service. Levy
11
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Constitution Art XII 9 – Homestead Exemption
12
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code RS 13-3921 – Judgment Fixing Portion Subject to Seizure Payment to Creditor and Processing Fee
13
Louisiana State Legislature. Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure Art 2413 – Effect of Garnishees Failure to Answer
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1674 – Restriction on Discharge from Employment by Reason of Garnishment