A creditor (except the IRS and student loans) cannot garnish wages or seize bank accounts unless they’ve already sued you and won. Even then, you can bankrupt out of the judgment or settle the judgment before a judgment levy/lien is taken.
This likely is stemming from defaults on second mortgages that are years old (the court process alone can take a year). People being garnished have had likely had ample opportunity to come to another arrangement.
SnakeDoc
That is true for a common creditor, however, the bank can take your funds deposited in it's bank to pay it's self. Always read the fine print.
Some of them probably don’t have the money to go bankrupt. The new bankruptcy laws mandated a larger amount that has to be prepaid to attorneys and the courts before they can file. If they had money problems and their bank accounts were frozen, they may not have had the money to file.
I think it is interesting how the new laws regarding bankruptcy were enacted only a couple of years before the bubble burst. Those attorneys are such Kreskins.