In our practice, we find garnishing bank accounts to be the single most efficient way to collect on a judgment. While rarely does the amount garnished fully satisfy a judgment (though it happens from time to time), the garnishment’s ability to get the judgment debtor’s attention is indeed where its power lies.
What is a Garnishment?
A garnishment is slightly different from a levy. A garnishment is a collection tool which attaches to the contractual relationship between the judgment debtor and a third party. The relationships that are most often subject to garnishment are that of bank account holder (Debtor) and the bank, and the relationship between employer and employee (Debtor) for salary and wages. Basically, people or entities which owe money to the Debtor can be served with a writ of garnishment, and that money can bypass the debtor to be paid to the creditor directly (with the help of the Court and subject to certain exemptions from the debtor).
Garnishments are governed by Chapter 77 of the Florida Statutes. The Garnishment statute while straight forward, requires strict construction, and attention to detail, as there are many procedural pitfalls that may cause the garnishment to fail.
The basic process for a garnishment is as follows: The Creditor files a motion and has the clerk issue the writ for a small fee (in the case a continuing writ against salary and wages a judge will issue). The Creditor then serves the writ on the Garnishee. Soon thereafter, Creditor must serve a notice of service or notice of garnishment on the Judgment Debtor of the Writ of Garnishment (very important this is done in accordance with the statute or the garnishment will fail); The Debtor than has 20 days from service of the notice to respond and assert any exemption from garnishment. An exemption is a statutory excuse for why the debtor should not be garnished. If an exemption is raised and served by the Debtor, Creditor then has 14 days (or 8 days if the exemption was hand delivered to creditor’s lawyer) to respond to the exemption (by verified motion) or the writ is automatically dissolved by the clerk without any hearing (so beware). In addition, the Garnishee has 20 days from service of the writ to answer. When the Garnishee answers, Creditor must then serve another notice to the debtor attaching a copy of the Garnishee’s answer. Debtor then has 20 days to respond as to whether answer is correct/the garnishment is true. These deadlines overlap and addressing each deadline/response requires a skilled collection lawyer to navigate.
Locating Assets Subject to Garnishment
The beauty of garnishment is that its a streamlined way to enforce a judgment. However, if you do not know where the debtor banks, or where the debtor works (in the case of an individual), a garnishment is useless. In a prior post, we discussed the importance of post-judgment discovery and why it is vital to collecting a judgment. A skilled collection firm like Andre Law can not only help you find such assets, but it also can use tools like garnishment to help collect that judgment. Contact Andre Law today to discuss any questions you have about garnishment or collections.