How to Fill Out Oregon’s Garnishment Hardship Form (Challenge to Garnishment)

Oregon’s Challenge to Garnishment form is how you ask a court to release wages or bank funds a creditor has taken when those funds are legally protected. You file the completed form with the court listed on the writ of garnishment, there is no filing fee, and the deadline is 30 days from receiving notice for a bank or property garnishment and 120 days for a wage garnishment.¹

Deadlines and What the Form Can Do

Count the days from when you received the Notice of Garnishment, not from when the creditor sent it. Miss the window and you lose the right to a hearing on the challenge.

The form is narrow in what it can accomplish. You can use it to claim that the money or property is exempt under state or federal law, to argue it is not subject to garnishment at all, or to assert that the writ overstates what you owe.² You cannot use it to argue that the underlying debt is wrong. Disputing the debt itself requires a separate legal action.

What Counts as Exempt

Your challenge needs a legal reason the funds are protected. Oregon and federal law shield several categories.

Protected Income

Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, and public assistance grants cannot be reached by creditors. Unemployment benefits, workers’ compensation, and most retirement and pension payments are also exempt when they can be traced back to their source.³ Veterans Affairs benefits are protected under federal law whether they still sit in the account or have already been spent.⁴

For bank deposits, exempt funds must be “reasonably identifiable.” If an exempt deposit shares an account with other money, you need records that pinpoint which dollars came from the protected source. Benefit award letters and bank statements do that work.

Bank Account Protections

Under a 2024 law, a base amount of $2,500 across all of your accounts at a given financial institution is automatically shielded from garnishment, and the figure adjusts for inflation each July. The bank holds that amount back on its own before sending anything to the creditor.⁵ On top of that, accumulated exempt deposits like Social Security or unemployment remain protected up to $7,500 so long as they are reasonably identifiable.³

Wage Limits

Oregon caps wage garnishment at 25 percent of your disposable earnings, so you keep at least 75 percent of each paycheck. A dollar floor also applies: your employer cannot garnish any amount that would leave you with less than $254 per week, or $1,090 per month for monthly pay.⁶ Whichever rule leaves more money with you is the one that controls. For lower earners, the dollar floor usually gives the better protection.

Tools of the Trade and Personal Property

Tools, equipment, and other items you need to earn a living are exempt up to $5,000 in value. A general personal property exemption of up to $400 is also available.⁷

Filling Out the Form

The Challenge to Garnishment form should have come with your Notice of Garnishment. If you don’t have it, download it from the Oregon Judicial Department (sometimes labeled form “W11”) or request a copy from the court or the creditor.⁸

At the top, enter the court name, the county, and the case number. All three appear on the writ of garnishment or on the Notice of Garnishment. Then work through the three substantive sections:

Describe the property or money you say is exempt. For a bank garnishment, give the amount. For wages, identify the pay period.
State the legal reason it is exempt. Plain language is fine; no statute citations required. “This is my Social Security deposit from March 5” or “The garnishment leaves me with less than $254 for the week” is enough. The Notice of Exempt Property that came with your garnishment paperwork lists the common categories.
If you are challenging the amount, enter what you believe the correct total owed should be.

Sign and date the form. If someone else claims an interest in the garnished property, such as a joint account holder, that person completes the separate section at the bottom and signs there.²

Attach whatever evidence backs your claim: benefit award letters, bank statements showing where deposits came from, pay stubs, tax documents. Redact full account numbers and Social Security numbers before filing. The court does not need them to rule.

Filing the Form

There is no filing fee.¹ Deliver the original to the court administrator for the court named on the writ. In person or by first-class mail both work.

You also need to send a copy to the garnishor, meaning the creditor or the attorney who issued the garnishment. Mail or hand-deliver that copy. You do not need to send one to your bank or employer; the court takes care of that side.¹ Keep a copy for yourself.

Filing does not stop the garnishment outright. It redirects the money. Once the court receives your challenge, the court administrator holds all garnished payments instead of releasing them to the creditor, and the funds stay with the court until a judge rules.¹

The Hearing and the Outcome

After you file, the court administrator sets a hearing date and mails notice to you, the creditor, and the garnishee. The statute says the hearing must happen “as soon as possible” without fixing a specific number of days.⁹ The hearing is summary, meaning the judge reviews the evidence quickly rather than running a full trial. Bring your documents and be ready to explain why the funds are exempt.

If the judge agrees with you, the court administrator mails the exempt funds back within 10 judicial days of the order, unless the Judicial Department has set a different timeline for that category of payment. If the judge denies the challenge, the non-exempt funds go to the creditor on the same schedule. A split ruling is possible, with some funds released to you and some to the creditor.¹⁰

If the Oregon Department of Revenue Garnished You

When the garnishor is the Oregon Department of Revenue collecting unpaid state taxes, the process is different. You file through Revenue Online or use the Department’s own Challenge to Garnishment form that came with the notice, and you submit it to the Department rather than to a court.¹¹ The 30-day and 120-day deadlines are the same. The Department reviews the challenge and issues full approval, partial approval, or denial, and will explain the reason and next appeal steps if it denies the request.

If It Is an IRS Levy, This Form Does Not Apply

An IRS tax levy is not an Oregon garnishment, and the Oregon Challenge to Garnishment form does nothing against it. To challenge an IRS wage levy, file IRS Form 12153 (Request for a Collection Due Process Hearing) with the IRS by the deadline printed on the notice you received. A timely request generally pauses collection while the hearing is pending. If you miss the deadline, you can request an “equivalent hearing” within one year, but that does not stop collection.

1
Oregon Public Law. Oregon Code 18.700 – Manner of Making Challenge to Garnishment
2
Oregon Public Law. Oregon Code 18.850 – Challenge to Garnishment Form
3
Oregon Public Law. Oregon Code 18.348 – Certain Funds Exempt When Deposited in Account; Limitation
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 38 USC 5301 – Nonassignability and Exempt Status of Benefits
5
Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Laws 2024 Chapter 100
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Oregon Public Law. Oregon Code 18.385 – Wage Exemption
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Oregon Public Law. Oregon Code 18.345 – Exempt Personal Property Generally
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Oregon Judicial Department. Oregon Challenge to Garnishment Form
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Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Code 18.710 – Hearing on Challenge to Garnishment
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Oregon Public Law. Oregon Code 18.712 – Allowance or Denial of Challenge
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Oregon Department of Revenue. Oregon Department of Revenue – Garnishments