You can technically try to vacate the judgment against you or ask the court to at least modify the garnishment, but both are time-consuming, complicated, and expensive processes. If a wage garnishment order is harming you financially, the best option may be filing for bankruptcy.
When you file for bankruptcy in New York, the automatic stay prohibits most creditors from initiating or continuing debt collection efforts, including wage garnishments. There are some cases when the stay won’t stop a garnishment: in particular, if you file Chapter 7 and the debt is for a domestic support obligation like spousal or child support. The good news is that a Chapter 13 filing can stop collections for these types of debts and give you the chance to repay arrears over three to five years.
After your bankruptcy case is filed, it can take over a week for your creditors to receive notification. If you don’t want to lose any more of your income to a wage garnishment, your attorney can notify both the creditor and your employer and provide your case number, court location, and filing date. By law, the garnishment must stop once the creditor learns about it: letting it proceed after that point is a violation of the automatic stay.