Can Lawyers Garnish Your Tax Return for Legal Fees?

Legal Fees

Legal fees include consultation fees, contingency fees (based on a percentage of the money you might win in court), flat fees (where a lawyer charges you a specific amount), hourly rates, referral fees (for referring you to another lawyer) retainer fees --- or down payments for services --- and statutory fees such as court costs. These fees will vary depending on the lawyers experience, reputation, ability and overhead.

The Department of Treasury's Financial Management Service is responsible for issuing tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service. Your refund can be garnished for past due child support, federal agency non-tax debts, state income tax obligations and certain unemployment compensation debts owed to a state. Legal fees owed to an attorney are not part of the Treasury Offset Program, therefore your tax refund will not be garnished for failure to pay your lawyer.

Although your refund can't be garnished to pay legal fees, a lawyer can garnish your wages to get the money owed to them. To get a wage garnishment, a lawyer must first sue you in civil court and obtain a judgment against you for the amount owed. Once the judgment is entered, the lawyer can request that a writ of garnishment be sent to your employer who is then mandated to send a portion of your paycheck to your lawyer.

Wage garnishment isn't the only option available to your lawyer; he can also garnish your bank accounts, put liens on real and personal property and in some cases may force you to sell your property to pay the debt. For any of these actions to happen, the lawyer must have a judgment against you. How much can be garnished and what assets you may be allowed to keep depends largely on what state you live in.