Garnishment refers to a court ordered process for collecting on a judgment, which takes money directly from the defendant’s wages or other third party who owes the defendant a debt. A garnishment order instructs a third-party who owes money to thedefendant, typically the defendant’s employer or the defendant’s bank,to pay some or all of that money to theplaintiffinstead of thedefendant. This third party is called a garnishee.
A court might garnish adefendant'swages for a variety of reasons including to paychild support, student loans, or back taxes. The federal Consumer Credit Protection Act limits wage garnishments to 25% of an employee's take-home pay, or 30 times the federalminimum wage, whichever is less. Additionally, many states have further restrictions on wage garnishments. For example, in Florida wages earned by the head of a household are deemed exempt wages and are therefore not subject to garnishment.
A few courts allowplaintiffs to request wage garnishment even before theplaintiffwins his or her case as aprovisional remedy under Rule 64(b)of theFederal Rules of Civil Procedure.Typically, however, courts prefer to use otherprovisional remedies likeattachment.
[Last updated in January of 2023 by the Wex Definitions Team]
