Wage garnishment release question?

I had a judgement against me for a past debt. I missed a payment, and my employer received an order to garnish my wages. I paid the debt before the garnishment was to start, and the collections firm is faxing me a release of the garnishment (as well as filing it with the court). I work in Missouri. My question is: What should my employer do? I share an office with our payroll person, and she is not sure. (ADP does our actual payroll) Everything I've read says that the employer should pretty much be off the hook once the release is filed, but since the garnishment never started, I'm just not sure. I don't want my employer to get in trouble over my financial problems...

I would really like if someone in this field (i.e. paralegal at a collections firm, a payroll person who has done garnishments...) would answer my question.
My employer has not started the garnishment. Do they still need to start it?
Do they need to file anything with the circuit court?
I work for a very small company, we don't often have this kind of situation...

Your employer does not have to start that garnishment. There is no "trouble" they will get into if they don't. I mean, at the most, what are talking about here, a couple of weeks before the garnishment release gets to them advising them to stop anyway? Remember-when the collections firm sends the release to the court, the court will then send a release to your employer. What the firm is faxing to you is a copy of the release, for this precise reason--so you can prove you paid it to your employer. The only way an employer would ever have any consequences of not obeying an order for garnishment is if there was a SERIOUS delay in starting it, such as several months, or if the employer refused to do it, as many employers do. In that case, there would be "Non-compliance" papers filed with the court by the collections firm, and your employer could be fined nominally. However, the ONLY reason your employer would EVER end up dealing with such consequences is if the collections firm PURSUED it--the court could not care less if the debt is paid, their job is merely to provide the tools to legally collect it. Believe me, the court is not following up on your case or any other case for that matter. The garnishment could sit dormant for two years with no funds being paid at all and the court would never even notice. It would only be when the court was notified by the collections firm that the employer wasn't cooperating that anything would ever result from a garnishment not being done. So, if the collections firm has been paid by you already, obviously they're not interested in pursuing that garnishment. So, you can tell your payroll person all of this, and if she still needs something on paper to prove she is safe to not begin garnishing you, just give her a copy of the release they are faxing to you. If for some reason she felt compelled to still comply with the garnishment until she got the mailed release, you would be refunded anything extra you paid. Laws vary from state to state but I'm pretty sure that MO law is not that different from ours here in OH.

As long as they have a copy of the release form from the court then they shouldnt get in trouble for stopping the garnishment

I would write or call the company that you just paid off ask them for a letter written by them that states your balance as of Aug/08 has 0 balance that your debt is paid off. You should be receiving your fax soon from the collection firm. Until you have it in writing that you are cleared. Your employer should follow though with what was order by the court.