A writ of garnishment is a court order directing an employer to set aside a certain amount of a debtor/employee's wages to hold for the benefit of the employee's creditor. A garnishment is one of several post-judgment collection procedures authorized by law that permit a creditor who has obtained a judgment against a debtor to enforce his award for money damages.
Obtaining a Judgment
A creditor who wishes to garnish a debtor's wages must first obtain a judgment from a court of appropriate jurisdiction. The creditor must file a lawsuit against the debtor for breach of the terms and conditions of the underlying contract on which the debt is owed. For consumer debt, the provisions of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act require that the creditor file suit in a court for the judicial district in which the debtor resides. Once the creditor prevails in his suit against the debtor, the court will issue a judgment for the amount of damages (dollar amount of default balance) awarded.
Executing the Judgment
Once the court issues a judgment, the plaintiff/creditor is designated as a judgment creditor, and the defendant is designated as the judgment debtor. In most jurisdictions, before a judgment creditor can initiate post-judgment collection procedures, he must request that the court issue an Execution on the judgment. An Execution is a legal document that bears the seal of the court that issued the judgment as well as the names of the judgment creditor and judgment debtor. The Execution declares that the judgment creditor is lawfully entitled to collect the specified damages noted against the judgment debtor.
Court Approval
Once he has been issued an Execution, a judgment creditor is permitted to seek court approval for a writ of garnishment as a means to enforce his judgment against the judgment debtor. In most jurisdictions, a specified percentage (usually 25 percent) of a debtor's wages are exempt from a garnishment order.
Procedures
After the court has approved an amount to be deducted from the judgment debtor's weekly wages, the judgment creditor must have the garnishment order served on the employer by a sheriff or other individual authorized by law to serve legal process. In many states, the employer must be served for each successive weekly pay period. The employer deducts the designated amount and sends it to the court, which then remits the amount to the judgment creditor.
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