Before filing for bankruptcy, Greer, who mainly lives off Social Security checks but also works part-time as a clerk at Wal-Mart, managed to pay off thousands in credit-card debt and keep up with other bills, including the monthly mortgage on an $80,000 home.

But she couldn't escape the unpaid debts of a former roommate she had tried to help out.

Greer agreed a few years ago to help her roommate consolidate debt. That left Greer on the hook for several thousand dollars her roommate owed to a debt collection company, which in February 2008 was granted the authority to begin seizing up to a quarter of Greer's monthly income.

When she eventually filed for bankruptcy, Greer reported $7,112 in non-mortgage debt, most of it stemming from her former housemate.

In Greer's county of Cullman, bankruptcy rates are moderate by Alabama's standards. But over the past year there have been 16 bankruptcy filings for every 10,000 individual tax returns — a higher rate than any county in the five states with stiffest anti-wage garnishment laws.

For people in dire situations, filing for bankruptcy may be the only way to prevent themselves from digging an ever-deeper financial hole.

For her part, Greer said she might have one day been able to pay off her debt — if it wasn't for the court order allowing her wages to be taken away. Although disappointed by her financial failures and somewhat stung by the stigma that comes with a bankruptcy filing, she's also feeling a sense of relief now that she's filed for bankruptcy.

"I don't have (creditors) hounding me," she said.