12-811.Trial and judgment.

Section 12-811 governs how a wage deduction dispute gets tried. Either the judgment creditor or the judgment debtor may contest the truth or sufficiency of the employer's answer to the interrogatories, and can do so without filing further pleadings -- the court proceeds to try the issues immediately, unless it postpones the hearing for good cause. Separately, at any time on or before the return date, the debtor may demand a hearing to argue the wages are exempt, by notifying the clerk in the way the statute prescribes: in person and in writing before the return date (or by appearing in court on that date) in counties of 1,000,000 or more people, or in writing on or before the return date in smaller counties. The clerk then sets a hearing date and supplies the forms the debtor or the debtor's attorney must send to the creditor and employer.

Once a hearing is held -- whether on the employer's answer or the debtor's exemption claim -- the trial is conducted the same way as any other civil case. If the finding goes against the employer, a deduction order is entered against the employer and in favor of the debtor to whom the employer is indebted, treated the same as if the facts had been admitted outright.

The section also puts real conditions on a deduction order entered in the creditor's favor: none may be entered unless the creditor's affidavit certifies that the wage deduction notice was mailed to the debtor under Section 12-805, and the employer's answer includes a summary of how it computed the non-exempt wage amount. Federal agency employers get a modified version of that second requirement -- rather than a computation summary, the employer must identify the computation method used on or with its periodic payments made under Section 12-808(b-5), and it is not otherwise required to provide the summary ordinary employers must supply.