Raigoza

This is an appeal from the denial of a prehminary injunction. The issue is the constitutionality of California’s postjudgment wage garnishment procedures. The plaintiffs are James and Margarita Raigoza, as taxpayers, and LaVerne DiNapoli, a judgment debtor. All three are sometimes collectively referred to as “debtor.” The defendants are various local and county officials, and D. Sigler, DiNapoli’s creditor. The complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief.

The facts are simple and undisputed. The judgment creditor, through the Los Angeles County Marshal, garnished $25 of DiNapoli’s wages. She claimed that the garnishment deprived her of property without due process of law. The trial court, in denying the preliminary injunction, disagreed, as do we.

The Statutory Scheme

A judgment creditor may obtain a writ of execution authorizing a levy against the debtor’s property. (Code Civ. Proc., § 682, subd. I.)

The writ must be in a specified form, which includes a notice to the judgment debtor that he “may be entitled to file a claim exempting [his] property from execution.” The form states that the claim must be filed “within 10 days from the date [the] property was…