No, Florida is not a community property state. In a community property state, any assets acquired by either spouse during the marriage is considered to be marital property and therefore owned by both spouses. In some community property states, even income earned from pre-marital separate property is still considered community property. Instead, Florida is an…
A client wanted to know if his employee benefits would be subject to a garnishment. Most judgment debtors do not qualify for a head of household exemption from continuing garnishment of salary and wages provided by Florida Statutes. This particular client asked about whether certain forms of compensation from his employer were outside the scope…
A civil judgment rendered in one state is enforceable in any other state under the concept of “full faith and credit.” The U.S. Constitution provides that each state must give full faith and credit to a civil order issued in another state’s court. For example, a money judgment issued in a Georgia court can be…
Most creditors understand that if they obtain a money judgment in a state other than Florida the creditor can transfer the judgment to Florida in order to pursue the debtor’s Florida assets. Creditors are often uniformed about how long they have to collect the foreign judgment in Florida. The question is: what is the statute…
One of my clients had a judgment entered against him from a business transaction in Florida during a time when he was living in Florida. After the business relationship ended, and after the lawsuit and judgment, my client moved to Canada where he established a new residence. He asked whether the Florida judgment could be…
One of my clients had a judgment issued against him in 2009 in a Georgia civil case. The client retired and moved to Florida in 2016. Upon discovering my client changed residence to Florida move the creditor domesticated the Georgia judgment in Florida in 2016. Georgia law provides that Georgia judgments expire in no longer…
After a car accident, an attorney for an injured person, or their insurance company, will often request that the party at fault complete a financial affidavit or an affidavit of no other insurance or assets. Should you fill it out? First of all, no Florida law requires you to submit a financial affidavit after a…
Florida law, and the law of most states, imposes a four year statute of limitations on a creditor’s allegations of fraudulent transfers under the fraudulent conveyance statute. The four year limitation does not apply when the creditor is the U.S. federal government or a government agency collecting court-ordered restitution. A recent Colorado federal court case…
How do you dissolve a Florida writ of garnishment? A creditor can serve a writ of wage garnishment on a debtor’s employer regardless of whether the debtor’s wages are exempt from garnishment. An employer can, and should, freeze wages upon being served with the writ. An employer is not liable for withholding wage payments that…
I had a client last week ask about the best responses to a writ of garnishment in Florida against a bank account. I explained that the first step is first to see whether or not the client had any statutory exemptions. We looked at the source of his bank account funds and made a conclusion…
