Oklahoma Statutes
Title 31. Homestead and Exemptions
§31-1.1. Earnings from personal services - Exemption from process - Order.

A. Following the issuance of an execution, attachment, or garnishment, except process to collect a judgment or order for child support or maintenance of children or in cases in which the court has limited or reduced the application of this section pursuant to Section 142.18 of Title 21 of the Oklahoma Statutes, the debtor may file with the court an application requesting a hearing to exempt from such process by reason of undue hardship that portion of any earnings from personal services necessary for the maintenance of a family or other dependents supported wholly or partially by the labor of the debtor. A debtor with no family or other dependents may not claim an exemption under this section. A hearing on the application shall be set and conducted in the manner provided by Section 1172.2 of Title 12 of the Oklahoma Statutes and subsection C of Section 1174 of Title 12 of the Oklahoma Statutes.

B. In determining the existence of an undue hardship, the court should consider the income and expenses of the family and other dependents, and the standard of living created by the income and expenses. The court should also consider the standard of living in relationship to the minimal subsistence needs of the debtor’s family and other dependents, with comparison to the minimal subsistence standards in the community, in regard to basic shelter, food, clothing, personal necessities and transportation. The court should then determine if the lack of the funds sought to be exempt would be an undue hardship by creating less than a minimal level of subsistence. If deprivation of these earnings would create an undue hardship on the debtor and the family or other dependents the debtor supports, the court may:
1. Order all or a portion of the personal earnings exempt; or
2. In the case of a continuing earnings garnishment pursuant to Section 1173.4 of Title 12 of the Oklahoma Statutes, exempt all or a portion of the personal earnings withheld within the thirty (30) days preceding the filing of the claim for exemption or modify or stay the garnishment for a period of time not to exceed the remainder of the term of the garnishment.
Added by Laws 1965, c. 301, § 1. Amended by Laws 1983, c. 50, § 6, emerg. eff. April 26, 1983; Laws 1990, c. 248, § 9, emerg. eff. May 21, 1990; Laws 1993, c. 325, § 20, emerg. eff. June 7, 1993; Laws 1995, c. 338, § 19, eff. Nov. 1, 1995; Laws 2004, c. 450, § 7, eff. Nov. 1, 2004.

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