Garnishments in Washington State
Update to January 2021 Blog Regarding Garnishments in Washington State
Pursuant to Washington Governor’s Proclamation 20-49.14, garnishments can now be applied to all bank account funds that do not consist of federal payments of any kind issued in response to the COVID-19 pandemic or state and federal unemployment payments. There are still additional protections in effect for military personnel despite these recent changes in the garnishment rules.
The State of Washington has extended the following important moratoriums for struggling citizens due to COVID-19 and the issues it has caused with safely maintaining employment and housing during Washington’s "Stay Home Stay Healthy" Order:
Investor-owned electric and natural gas utility disconnections for nonpayment until April 30, 2021.
With some exceptions, residential and commercial evictions until March 31, 2021, which is longer than the federal protection just extended through January 31, 2021.
Garnishments and Accrual of Interest until January 19, 2021.
These extended moratoriums are necessary to protect our communities from increased COVID-19 consequences. For example, on November 27, 2020, CNBC reported that “researchers, from the University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, San Francisco, Johns Hopkins University, Boston University, and Wake Forest University School of Law, found that lifting state moratoriums and allowing eviction proceedings to continue caused as many as 433,700 excess cases of Covid-19 and 10,700 additional deaths in the U.S. between March and September.”
Further, as indicated in Governor Inslee’s Proclamation 20-49.1, “garnishment of wages or other income, including CARES Act stimulus payments, to collect judgments for consumer debt, as authorized under RCW 6.27, and the mounting interest on that debt, as authorized under RCW 4.56.110(1) and (5), will further reduce the ability of people impacted by the economic downturn to pay for basic household expenses, thereby increasing life, health and safety risks to a significant percentage of our people from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
It is not unlikely that these moratoriums will continue to be extended throughout the new year in 2021 to aid hard-struck populations here in the State of Washington as our new COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to surge.