§ 8.01-525.6.Petition for assignment of salary, wages, or income for the benefit of creditors.

A debtor who owes multiple creditors and wants out from under separate collection actions can ask a judge to appoint a trustee over his salary, wages, or income. Instead of each creditor chasing him individually through garnishment or lawsuits, the trustee steps in, collects what the debtor earns, and pays it out under the court’s supervision according to the plan set out in this article.

The judge cannot appoint a trustee on the debtor’s request alone. A majority of the creditors named in the petition must give written consent to the arrangement, and if the debtor earns a salary or wages from an employer, that employer must consent in writing too, since the whole plan depends on the employer routing pay to the trustee instead of the debtor.

This consent requirement makes the mechanism cooperative rather than coercive: it works because enough creditors would rather receive steady, supervised payments than fight over what little the debtor has. For a debtor struggling under debt but still earning a paycheck, it offers a middle path between piecemeal settlements and bankruptcy.