Nevada Debt Collection Laws: The Two-Tier Garnishment Cap, Bank Protections, and Repo Rules

No collector can garnish a Nevada paycheck on a threat alone. Before wages can be touched for ordinary consumer debt, the creditor must sue, win a judgment, and get a writ of garnishment from the court. Most Nevada garnishments start with a default judgment entered because the summons was never answered, so answering the lawsuit is the single most valuable step you can take.

Nevada's Two-Tier Wage Garnishment Formula

Most states use one garnishment formula for everyone. Nevada splits debtors into two tiers based on gross weekly pay at the time the writ of garnishment issued. If your gross weekly wage was $770 or less, 82% of your disposable earnings is exempt, leaving at most 18% garnishable. If your gross weekly wage exceeded $770, 75% is exempt, leaving at most 25% garnishable. On top of both tiers sits a floor: if 50 times the federal minimum hourly wage ($362.50 per week at the $7.25 rate) protects more of your pay than the percentage does, the larger protection wins.

Two statutes state the same cap from opposite directions. NRS 21.090(1)(g) writes it as an exemption, listing what the judgment debtor keeps. NRS 31.295(2) writes it as a limit on the garnishment, capping the amount subject to garnishment at 18 percent of disposable earnings at or below the $770 gross weekly threshold, 25 percent above it, or the amount by which disposable earnings exceed 50 times the federal minimum wage, whichever is less. A garnishment that satisfies one satisfies the other, so cite whichever framing fits the argument you are making.

That 50-times multiple is worth pausing on. The federal baseline most states copy protects only 30 times the minimum wage ($217.50 per week); Nevada's floor is substantially higher, and its 82% tier for lower earners is one of the more protective ordinary-debt rules in the country.

Disposable earnings means what remains after legally required deductions such as taxes and Social Security. Child support runs on its own track, and Nevada codifies those higher ceilings itself rather than leaving them to federal law. Under NRS 31.295(4), a support garnishment may reach up to 50 percent of disposable earnings if you are supporting another spouse or child, or 60 percent if you are not, and those limits rise to 55 and 65 percent when the garnishment enforces support owed for a period at least 12 weeks before the workweek begins. Nevada law also gives child support writs first priority over other garnishments (NRS 31.249).

On job security, NRS 31.298 makes it unlawful for an employer to discharge or discipline an employee exclusively because the employer must withhold earnings under a writ of garnishment. The provision's text does not carry the one-debt limit that federal law has, though how far Nevada courts extend it across multiple garnishments is not settled ground; the federal one-debt protection applies at a minimum.

Automatic Bank Account Protections

Nevada is one of the states that protects bank balances automatically, before you file anything. Under NRS 21.105, when a writ hits a personal account, the bank must leave untouched: $2,000 (or the full balance if less) if the account received federally exempt payments such as Social Security, VA benefits, federal retirement, or military pay by electronic deposit within the preceding 45 days; otherwise $400 (or the full balance if less). The $400 baseline does not apply when the writ enforces a support obligation. Money above those amounts can still be frozen, and you can claim additional exempt funds through the court under NRS 21.112.

Federal law adds its own layer for benefit recipients: banks must automatically protect an amount equal to the last two months of directly deposited federal benefits, independent of the Nevada figures.

How Long Can You Be Sued Over a Debt in Nevada?

Nevada gives written contracts 6 years (NRS 11.190(1)(b)) and oral contracts 4 years. Open accounts for goods sold and delivered are expressly listed at 4 years. Promissory notes run 6 years from the due date, or 6 years from demand for demand notes, under NRS 104.3118. Whether a credit card account is treated as a written contract (6 years) or an open account (4 years) can be contested, and Nevada case law does not settle it cleanly, so do not assume an old card debt is time-barred at 4 years without checking how the claim is pleaded.

Nevada's revival rule cuts both ways, and which way it cuts depends entirely on timing. Under NRS 11.200(1), the clock runs from the last transaction or last payment, and a payment of principal or interest made after the debt comes due restarts the limitation period from the date of that payment. No signed writing is needed. But NRS 11.200(2), added by a 2023 amendment, closes the trap that catches most people: any payment on a debt, affirmation of a debt or other activity taken relating to a debt by a debtor after the time in NRS 11.190 has expired does not revive the applicable limitation.

So the two cases split. A payment on an account whose 4 or 6 year window is still open can hand the collector a fresh window running from the payment date. A payment on an account that is already time-barred does not bring the lawsuit deadline back to life, and neither does acknowledging the debt or setting up a payment plan. Dating the clock before you pay or say anything is still the right first move, because that date is what decides which of the two rules applies to you.

An expired limitation period does not erase the debt. Collectors may still request payment, and the account can stay on your credit report for up to 7 years on a separate clock. What no collector may do is sue or threaten suit on a time-barred debt; federal Regulation F prohibits that outright.

Medical Debt: What SB 248 Actually Does

Nevada's 2021 medical debt law, Senate Bill 248, is often misdescribed online as a garnishment cap. It is not. SB 248 amended the collection agency chapter (NRS chapter 649) and regulates how collection agencies pursue medical debt, most notably requiring a 60-day written notice before taking collection action on medical debt and limiting the fees that can be added. If a medical creditor wins a judgment, garnishment of that judgment still runs under the ordinary NRS 21.090 formula, including the 82% tier and the $362.50 floor.

Nevada's strongest medical-debt-specific protection sits elsewhere in the statutes and is easy to miss. NRS 21.095 exempts the judgment debtor's primary dwelling, including a mobile or manufactured home, from execution upon a judgment for a medical bill, and it exempts the parcel of land the dwelling sits on and any appurtenances the debtor owns. The exemption runs for the lifetime of the judgment debtor, a spouse, a mentally or physically disabled dependent adult child, or a joint tenant who held that status when the judgment was entered. It also runs during the minority of the judgment debtor's child, so long as the debtor or joint tenant lives in the dwelling, or the debtor's spouse, dependent or minor child does. What it protects is the home: it stops a forced sale of the dwelling on a medical judgment, but it does not stop a wage garnishment or a bank levy on that same judgment.

Repossession: Licensing, Police Reports, and the 60-Day Accounting

Nevada enacted the standard self-help rule at NRS 104.9609: after default, a secured lender may repossess a vehicle without a court order as long as it proceeds without breach of the peace. Nevada adds guardrails most states lack. Repossessors must be licensed through the state's Private Investigator's Licensing Board under NRS chapter 648. And NRS 482.518 requires anyone who repossesses a vehicle without the knowledge of the registered owner to report it immediately, by oral communication, to the police of the city or the sheriff's office of the county where the repossession happened; that officer forwards a copy of the report to the Department. The trigger is the owner's lack of knowledge, not the owner's physical absence, so a repossession the owner knows is coming does not require the call.

One group of borrowers is off limits entirely during a government shutdown. Under NRS 482.5165, if a person liable on the security agreement provides proof that he or she is a federal, tribal or state worker, or a household member of one, no one may repossess that person's vehicle from the day a shutdown begins until 30 days after it ends. Repossessing in knowing violation is a misdemeanor and can carry actual damages, reasonable attorney's fees and costs. NRS 482.516(2)(a) requires the pre-sale notice to inform you of that section, so the notice itself should tell you the protection exists.

After the vehicle is taken, NRS 482.516 controls what happens next: the lender must give at least 10 days' written notice of intent to sell or re-lease, during which you may redeem the vehicle by paying the full amount owed, and it must deliver an itemized accounting of charges and credits within 60 days of the repossession. Miss that accounting and the lender loses the right to collect a deficiency, the gap between the sale price and the loan balance. We could not verify any general pre-repossession right-to-cure notice in the Nevada statutes, so do not count on a warning before the truck arrives; a servicemember whose loan predates military service is the exception, since federal law requires a court order in that case.

If You Are Being Garnished or Sued in Nevada

Answer the summons before the deadline, even with a short denial; a default judgment surrenders every defense, including the statute of limitations. If a garnishment is running, check the math: confirm which tier applies based on your gross weekly wage when the writ issued, and confirm the $362.50 floor is being honored. If a bank account is frozen, the NRS 21.105 amounts should have been protected automatically; claim anything above them that traces to exempt sources under NRS 21.112. Do not pay anything on an old debt before dating the limitation period: a payment made while the period is still running restarts it, while a payment on an already-expired debt does not revive it under NRS 11.200(2). When judgments have stacked past what a budget can carry, bankruptcy's automatic stay halts garnishment while the case is pending; the guide to stopping wage garnishment walks the options in order.

Information last verified on 2026-08-12. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Related Resources

• Debt Collection Laws by State
• Statute of Limitations on Debt
• How to Stop Wage Garnishment
• Car Repossession Laws
• Nevada Statute of Limitations
• Nevada Bankruptcy

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Last updated: 2026-08-12.

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