A woman says her bank account was almost wiped out and there was nothing she could do to stop it. It was totally legal because of the way garnishment laws work.

In a KSPR Problem Solvers report, we took a look at the law that affects thousands of people in the Ozarks everyday.

Janice Dugan called KSPR when she tried to pay her bills and couldn't.

"I'm hoping you can kind of give me some legal advice,” said Janice. “You know, I've never had this happen to me."

"When I went to my bank to make a car payment, they're telling me I only had a dollar in it," said Janice.

That's right, just one dollar—hardly enough to buy a cheap air freshener much less anything else that deals with a car.

"I was shocked," said Janice.

It boils down to a garnishment from a lawsuit concerning some property in Webster County. Janice says she was over the fact that she lost and even allowed the woman who filed suit against her to take nearly $180 of her wages each pay period, 25-percent of her paycheck.

However, just days ago, she found that the woman also garnished her bank account—something she thought was illegal since she had already been paying every other week.

"What am I supposed to live on?” she asked. “And how am I supposed to pay my bills?"

"She needs to take advantage of her exemptions," said attorney Jeff Goodnight. Goodnight deals with several of these kinds of cases each month. He also says the woman who garnished Janice's bank account acted within her legal rights. "Whether it's moral or not, we can all enter a debate about that," said Goodnight.

However, Jeff adds that Janice has rights, too.

"She could exempt $1250 plus any exemption she may have under Missouri law," he said.

That means, Janice could fight it and get most of her money back, in time. But in the meantime, Jeff says there are ways to protect yourself if you find yourself in that situation.

"The very best way to protect yourself is to have a judge enter the judgment,” said Goodnight. For example, he says agree that you’ll voluntarily allow someone to garnish your wagers as long as they do not garnish anything else. Janice wishes she could go back in time, but right now, she's more concerned about her future.

"I don't want it to happen to someone else,” she said.

Janice says she's in the process of filing her exemption, thanks to the help of the attorney in our story, Jeff Goodnight. She's pretty confident she'll get some of her money back and says one lesson she learned was to keep her money out of the bank until she pays off the money from that lawsuit.

In the meantime, if you have a problem you'd help with, let us help. Call us in the newsroom at 864-3344 or send us an email to news@kspr.com.