I have a defendant who owes about $40,000 in restitution from a theft case. She has a good job and my boss wants me to garnish her wages to get this paid.

I am not aware of any provision allowing this type of action. I don't think I can do a restitution lien because the underlying offens is theft.

Ideas???

Could you do a "wage with-holding order" at the time of the probation plea, similar to the order commonly used in divorce cases? I suppose you could make it a condition of probation...I don't know...what do you think???

Isn't payment of restitution part of probation? If she has the ability to pay, isn't that grounds for revocation?

I believe garnishing wages for criminal restitution is unconstitutional.

A proposed consitutional amendment to permit the practice has been filed this session but it appears to be dead because it has not come out of committee yet. The legislation can be found here:

HJR 80