12-809.Offsetting claims.

Section 12-809 recognizes that the employer often has its own financial dealings with the parties, separate from the wages a deduction order targets. The employer may assert offsetting claims against the judgment creditor, the judgment debtor, or both, whether those claims were already due when the summons was served or become due afterward, and whether they are liquidated or unliquidated. The one exception: demands for unliquidated claims sounding in tort cannot be used as an offset. That line keeps disputed, unquantified tort claims from being used to swallow up wages otherwise headed to the debtor or creditor.

Once the offsetting claims are adjusted, the employer is liable only for whatever balance of indebtedness remains due the judgment debtor. The verdict or finding, and the resulting judgment, must show the amount of offsetting claims or deductions allowed against each party, so the record reflects exactly how the final number was reached rather than leaving it to be reconstructed later.