What Ohio Protects When a Creditor Sues — and Why It Belongs in Your First Touch

An envelope arrives from a law firm in another city, filed on behalf of a bank or a collection agency the recipient may not recognize. Whatever else is going through that person’s mind over the following week, three questions are near the front of it: can they take my paycheck, can they empty my account, and can they take my house?

Most Ohio firms answer those questions in the first consultation. Very few answer them in the outreach that produces the consultation — and that is a gap worth closing, because Ohio law gives specific, quotable answers.

Ohio’s Exemptions Are Not a Bankruptcy Rule

This is the part that gets miscategorized constantly, including by marketing copy. Ohio Revised Code § 2329.66 sits in Title 23, Chapter 2329 — “Execution Against Property” — and its opening line exempts a person’s property “from execution, garnishment, attachment, or sale to satisfy a judgment or order.” It is a judgment-collection statute. Only one subsection, the small wildcard at (A)(18), is limited to bankruptcy proceedings.

In other words, these protections attach to the situation your prospective client is already in. They do not require anyone to file anything.

The dollar amounts are recalculated every third year by the Ohio Judicial Conference against the consumer price index. The current set took effect April 1, 2025 and governs through March 31, 2028. Per the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Ohio’s published table, the figures now in force include a residence exemption of $182,625 (up from $161,375), $5,025 in one motor vehicle, $16,850 aggregate in household goods, $3,200 in tools of the trade, and $625 in cash and money on deposit.

The two that matter most in the first week

Wages. Under § 2329.66(A)(13), a judgment creditor cannot reach everything. The debtor keeps the greater of 75 percent of disposable earnings or 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage per week. Garnishment is the single most common fear among people who have just been served, and the honest answer — that most of a paycheck is protected by statute — is more reassuring than most of them expect.

Bank accounts. The same statute protects only about $625 on deposit. This is the uncomfortable one, and it is precisely why the conversation is more useful before a judgment than after. Ohio also requires a creditor to make a written demand and wait fifteen days before applying for a wage garnishment order under § 2716.02, which is a real window rather than a rhetorical one.

Why This Is a Better First Touch Than “Considering Bankruptcy?”

Someone served last Tuesday does not think of themselves as a bankruptcy client. They think of themselves as a person being sued. Outreach that opens by proposing bankruptcy asks them to accept a conclusion they have not reached yet, and it tends to get thrown away.

Outreach that explains what Ohio protects, and notes that there are several ways to respond — defending the suit, negotiating, and yes, bankruptcy where it fits — asks for something much smaller: a conversation about options. That is a realistic thing to say yes to. For firms handling both civil and debt-related matters and bankruptcy and debt relief work, it also lets one message serve both sides of the practice, with the right path decided at intake rather than in the mailer.

A caution on how you say it. An exemption figure is not a guarantee — liens, equity position, the nature of the debt and how title is held all bear on the outcome, so frame the numbers as a reason to get advice, not as an assurance about anyone’s specific case. And keep the register level. People in this situation are frequently embarrassed and frequently frightened; copy that amplifies either reads as predatory and converts worse than copy that reads as competent and unbothered.

Getting It to the Right Households

None of this works if the message goes to a ZIP code. An explanation of Ohio’s garnishment exemptions is noise to a household with no collection problem and close to unignorable to someone who opened a summons last week.

That timing is the whole proposition: reaching people who are actively in need of an attorney right now, matched to your practice area and to the counties where you actually appear in Ohio, rather than buying broad reach and hoping some of it lands on the right doorstep.

Where Email Does Work Mail Cannot

A letter is good at the headline — you were sued, here is what Ohio protects, here is who to call. It is not good at nuance, and exemption law is nothing but nuance.

Targeted email gives you the room, and the part that matters is who receives it: the same qualified individuals your mail is already reaching, not a purchased list or a general newsletter file. The same person, contacted a second way, with space to explain the wage rule properly and a link they can act on while they are still turning it over. Mail earns the attention; email carries the detail. Social media handles the quieter job of making your firm’s name familiar before anyone starts searching.

Five Things to Get Right

• Lead with wages, not with filing. It is the first fear and the most favorable answer.
• Use the current figures. The pre-April 2025 amounts are wrong now and undercut the whole argument.
• Offer options, not a recommendation. “Let’s talk through what you can do” outperforms “file bankruptcy.”
• Track by channel. Separate numbers or landing pages are the only honest read on what produced the call.
• Diary March 2028. The amounts reset then, and every piece of collateral will need revisiting.

Worth a Conversation

If you would like to look at how your Ohio practice is reaching people in the weeks right after they are sued — leads matched to your practice area and coverage area, plus direct mail, targeted email, and social media campaigns built around them — we would be glad to talk it through. Reach us at 703-755-0455 or info@casehunter.com.