How to Respond to a Garnishment in Florida

A debtor whose wages or bank accounts have been frozen in Florida has two responses. A Claim of Exemption asserts that the money is protected by law. The other, a Motion to Dissolve, denies an allegation in the creditor’s motion for the writ. Each carries its own 20-day deadline, and missing one forfeits that response.

The Claim of Exemption comes first. Its 20 days start when the notice attached to the writ reaches the debtor, while the Motion to Dissolve clock does not start until the creditor serves the garnishee’s answer with the required notice.

What Documents Should the Debtor Receive?

The creditor must mail the debtor three documents once the writ of garnishment issues: a copy of the writ, a copy of the garnishment motion, and a “Notice to Defendant” explaining the debtor’s rights. The mailing deadline is five business days after issuance or three business days after service on the garnishee, whichever is later.

The Notice to Defendant carries the Claim of Exemption form, the filing that can stop the garnishment. Florida’s garnishment statute sets out the form itself, listing the major exemptions available under Florida and federal law. The debtor checks the applicable exemptions, signs the form under oath, has it notarized, and files it with the clerk of court.

A second notice arrives later, after the garnishee answers the writ. Within five days the creditor must mail the debtor a copy of that answer and a notice that the debtor now has 20 days for a motion to dissolve. If the garnishee never answers, the five days run from the date its answer was due.

The two 20-day windows are separate, and each one closes for good. A late claim of exemption is treated as waived; a late motion to dissolve is stricken as an unauthorized nullity, which leaves that party in a default posture.

The Notice to Defendant of Right Against Garnishment

The Notice to Defendant of Right Against Garnishment of Wages, Money, and Other Property is the paper that tells a garnished person their frozen wages or bank funds may be exempt and recoverable. The clerk attaches this notice to every writ of garnishment issued against an individual, and Florida Statutes § 77.041(1) sets its wording, so the notice reads the same in every Florida case.

In practice, the money is usually frozen before the notice arrives, because the writ is served on the bank or employer while the notice travels by first-class mail. The notice also starts the 20-day exemption deadline: the window runs from the day the defendant receives the notice, not from the day the money was frozen. The exemptions themselves are asserted on the accompanying claim of exemption and request for hearing form, which has its own statutory text and filing requirements.

Filing a Claim of Exemption

A Claim of Exemption asserts that some or all of the garnished funds are protected from collection under Florida or federal law. Exempt categories include head of household wages, Social Security benefits, disability income, veterans’ benefits, retirement funds, workers’ compensation, unemployment compensation, and public assistance.

The debtor must file the Claim of Exemption within 20 days after receiving the Notice to Defendant. The form must be completed under oath and notarized. The debtor must also serve a copy on the creditor (or the creditor’s attorney) and the garnishee (or the garnishee’s attorney). Florida courts have treated late-filed claims as waived, which means otherwise protected funds can be turned over to the creditor because the debtor missed the deadline.

Filing the Claim of Exemption puts the creditor on a clock. The creditor must file a sworn written objection within 8 business days if the debtor hand-delivered the claim, or 14 business days if served by mail. An unsworn response does not count. If the creditor lets the window pass, no hearing is required—the clerk must dissolve the writ and the frozen funds are released.

If the creditor does file a timely objection, the clerk sets a hearing. The burden of proving the exemption stays with the debtor, and the creditor’s objection does not shift it. For a head of household claim, the debtor brings pay stubs, tax returns, and proof of providing more than half the support for a child or other dependent. For Social Security, the debtor must trace the frozen money back to benefit deposits.

Filing a Motion to Dissolve

A Motion to Dissolve asks the court to cancel the writ because an allegation in the creditor’s motion for it is untrue. Section 77.07 then makes the creditor prove the grounds the writ issued on, and if it cannot, the garnishment is dissolved. Florida courts construe the garnishment statutes strictly and in the debtor’s favor, so a writ can fall even when the debt behind it is valid and the frozen money is not exempt.

One recurring attack is on the amount. Read together, sections 77.01, 77.03, and 77.0305 limit a post-judgment writ to money an existing judgment already covers, so attorney’s fees from the collection effort that were never reduced to judgment cannot ride along. A creditor who never serves the section 77.055 notice never starts the debtor’s 20-day clock, so the motion stays available. The debtor files the motion and serves the creditor and the garnishee. Chapter 77 prints no form for it, so the motion is drafted from scratch and names the allegation it denies.

The 20 days run from the certificate-of-service date on the creditor’s notice, not from the day the debtor reads the garnishee’s answer. A motion filed after that is stricken as an unauthorized nullity, and the proceedings continue in a default posture as to the party who filed it. The statute gives the court no discretion to accept a late one. In one Eleventh Circuit appeal, a debtor lost retirement accounts the creditor never disputed were exempt because both of his filings arrived a month or more late.

Dissolving the writ does not touch the debt or the judgment. The frozen money goes back to the debtor and the case proceeds as if no writ had issued, which leaves the creditor free to obtain a new writ.

When to File Both

A debtor whose funds are exempt and who can also deny something the creditor swore to should file both the Claim of Exemption and a Motion to Dissolve. The two responses are not mutually exclusive, and filing both creates parallel paths to release the frozen funds.

The Claim of Exemption carries the earlier deadline and the stronger remedy, because an unanswered claim dissolves the writ with no hearing at all. The Motion to Dissolve reaches defects the exemption claim cannot touch. It survives even when the creditor contests the exemption.

If the money is not exempt but something the creditor swore to was untrue, the Motion to Dissolve may be the only defense left.

The Six-Month Automatic Dissolution Rule

A writ of garnishment does not last indefinitely. Under section 77.07(5), the writ dissolves automatically and the garnishee is discharged if the creditor files neither a dismissal nor a motion for final judgment within six months of filing the writ. The creditor can extend the writ another six months by serving a notice of extension on the garnishee and the debtor and filing a certification of that service. The discharge runs only to that writ, so a new one can follow.

Creditors sometimes obtain a writ, freeze the account, and then let the case sit. A debtor whose money has been frozen for several months should check the docket for a dismissal, a motion for final judgment, or a notice of extension. If none of the three appears within six months after the writ was filed, the freeze ended on its own. The garnishee owes nothing more under that writ.

What Happens If the Debtor Does Not Respond?

A debtor who receives a garnishment notice and does nothing risks losing every dollar that was frozen. The creditor moves for final judgment, and the court enters judgment against the garnishee. The amount is whatever the garnishee’s answer shows it holds, capped by the balance still unpaid on the judgment against the debtor.

At the final judgment stage, a debtor who never filed a Claim of Exemption or a Motion to Dissolve has almost nothing left. Section 77.041 supplies no procedure for an untimely exemption claim, and Florida courts have refused to read one in, even for a debtor claiming homestead protection over the garnished money. One federal appeals court found delays of one and two months not excusable.

The notice arrives, the debtor sets it aside, and the 20 days run out. By the time the debtor calls a lawyer, money that Florida law protected in full has already gone to the creditor.

Wrongful Garnishment as a Countermeasure

Florida common law lets a garnished debtor sue the creditor for wrongful garnishment. In Strickland v. Commerce Loan Co., a creditor swore an affidavit it knew was false, stating that the debtor was not the head of a family, and garnished her paycheck on that basis. A jury had already resolved the head-of-family question in her favor. The court held that she had stated a claim. Under Martin v. Martin, the claim goes in its own lawsuit and cannot be raised as a counterclaim in the creditor’s own case.

Florida treats a wrongful garnishment suit the way it treats a malicious prosecution suit. The debtor must prove the creditor had no probable cause to garnish and that the creditor acted with malice. Malice does not have to be proved directly, because a court may infer it from the lack of probable cause alone.

As a practical first step, a debtor whose exempt accounts have been frozen should send the creditor’s attorney the proof: pay stubs, benefit award letters, or statements showing where each deposit came from. Many creditor attorneys release a garnishment voluntarily once the evidence supports the exemption. A creditor who keeps the writ in place after seeing that proof can no longer say it did not know the funds were exempt, and Strickland turned on exactly that knowledge.