Utah Claim of Exemption

A Utah claim of exemption is how you protect wages or bank funds from a garnishment. In Utah you file a Reply and Request for Hearing with the court that issued the judgment, telling it that some or all of the money is exempt, meaning the law does not let a creditor take it. Filing it lets you ask for a hearing to show the money is protected.

An objection challenges whether the garnishment itself is proper, such as a wrong amount or a defect in the notice. A claim of exemption accepts that the debt exists but says the specific wages or funds are legally protected. In Utah the Reply and Request for Hearing form lets you do both at once, and you file it within 14 days of the Notice of Garnishment and Exemptions.

Under Utah Rule of Civil Procedure 64D a creditor can take the lesser of 25 percent of your disposable earnings for the pay period, or the amount by which those earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage, which is 217.50 dollars a week. Disposable earnings are what is left after legally required deductions. This matches the federal wage-garnishment limit.

You have 14 days from the date the garnishee mailed or delivered the Notice of Garnishment and Exemptions to file your Reply and Request for Hearing. The clock starts when the notice is sent, not when you read it, so act as soon as you learn of the garnishment. Missing the 14-day window can cost you wages the law would have protected.

Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, disability, veterans benefits, and many pensions and public benefits are exempt from garnishment for ordinary debts, no matter how much you owe. A baseline share of ordinary wages is also protected under the federal limit that Utah follows. If exempt benefits are frozen in a bank account, a claim of exemption is how you get them released.

Utah does not add a separate head-of-household exemption that raises the protected share of wages above the standard limit. Your pay is generally protected at the lesser of 25 percent of disposable earnings or the amount above 30 times the federal minimum wage. Exempt income such as Social Security and disability stays protected regardless, and you can explain hardship at your hearing.

You file the Reply and Request for Hearing with the court that issued the judgment and the garnishment. Your employer, as the garnishee, must give you the Notice of Garnishment and Exemptions and two copies of the Reply form. File it within 14 days of that notice, and the court will schedule your hearing and notify you of the date.