I have a loan in Canada I cannot service and have been called by the collection agency (debt collectors) there to tell me they are going to garnish my wages here in Australia. I understand that they need a garnishee court order to do that, but how would they go about getting a court order without me there to attend the hearing? What are my options here?
Debt Collection - Canadian Creditor Garnish My Australian Wages?
- Thread starter ConcernedImport
- Start date
Hi ConcernedImport,
I can't comment on whether a Canadian creditor can garnish (debt to be paid from) your wages/salary.
A garnishee order can be made without your attendance in court. That said, you will need to be served with any garnishee order/s and potentially also be notified by your employer that they've also received an order that requires them to comply (an "order nisi") with the garnishee order by deducting a set amount from your wages/salary and transferring that amount to the creditor.
Hope this helps. Please keep us updated.
I can't comment on whether a Canadian creditor can garnish (debt to be paid from) your wages/salary.
A garnishee order can be made without your attendance in court. That said, you will need to be served with any garnishee order/s and potentially also be notified by your employer that they've also received an order that requires them to comply (an "order nisi") with the garnishee order by deducting a set amount from your wages/salary and transferring that amount to the creditor.
Hope this helps. Please keep us updated.
- Hearing an application of this type is called an ex parte hearing.
That is, one that occurs with only one party (usually the applicant) present.
Whether or not that can happen in Canada, for the kind of order they seek,
I can't say, because I am not a Canadian lawyer.
- Although I don't know anything about court process in Canada,
I suspect that if you wanted to, you could take part in a hearing
via video link or some other relevant technology.
You would need a lawyer in Canada to help you make that happen.
- A court order made in Canada does not automatically have effect in Australia.
But sometimes it can be made to. This is called "reciprocal enforcement of judgments".
How it works, basically, is that the overseas party can put the overseas judgement
before the relevant Australian court and have it given effect here.
This called "registering a foreign judgement".
Australia has a deal with Canada where this can happen.
- You need the advice of a Canadian lawyer about being a respondent in Canada
to a garnishee application made there.
- You could also be a respondent in any application in Australia
to register the Canadian judgement.
You will need an Australian lawyer to help you with that.
Similar threads
