Judge: Armen Tamzarian, Case: 20STCV35112, Date: 2023-08-31 Tentative Ruling

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Case Number: 20STCV35112    Hearing Date: August 31, 2023    Dept: 52

Tentative Ruling:

Plaintiff/Judgment Creditor Jamie Stein’s Motion to Modify Earnings Withholding Order

            Plaintiff/judgment creditor Jamie Stein moves to modify the earnings withholding order against judgment debtor Liang Wang.  Courts may modify an earnings withholding order when “there is a material change of circumstances since the time of the last prior hearing on the earnings withholding order.”  (Code Civ. Proc., § 706.105, subd. (h).)

On October 13, 2022, the court ordered that the levying officer shall withhold $250 per pay period (up to $500 per month) from debtor Wang’s earnings.  That amount constituted 23% of Wang’s disposable earnings as indicated in his sworn financial statement.  Stein submits evidence that Wang’s earnings have increased by about 50 percent.  (Sampson Decl., Exs. 5, 6.)  Stein now seeks to modify the earnings withholding order to withhold 23% of Wang’s disposable earnings rather than a specific dollar amount. 

New law, however, prohibits withholding more than 20% of a judgment debtor’s disposable earnings.  Operative on September 1, 2023, the day after this hearing, Code of Civil Procedure section 706.050, subdivision (a)(1) will limit the maximum amount of earnings subject to levy under an earnings withholding order to “[t]wenty percent of the individual’s disposable earnings.”  (Added by Stats. 2022, ch. 849, § 2.) 

The court finds a material change in circumstances warrants modifying the earnings withholding order to withhold 20% of Wang’s disposable earnings.

The motion is granted in part.  The court will issue a signed order modifying the earnings withholding order to withhold 20% of Wang’s disposable earnings.