Florida Fact Information Sheet (Form 1.977)

A fact information sheet is a sworn financial disclosure that a Florida court orders a judgment debtor to complete and deliver to the judgment creditor, at the creditor’s request, after entering a money judgment. The standard form, Form 1.977, requires the debtor to list income, bank accounts, real property, vehicles, and recent asset transfers—all signed under penalty of perjury.

What the debtor discloses on Form 1.977 shapes the creditor’s entire collection strategy—from deciding whether to pursue wage garnishment to identifying bank accounts available for levy. The form is the creditor’s most direct tool for locating non-exempt assets without conducting an independent search.

When Is the Fact Information Sheet Required?

A Florida judgment creditor gets a fact information sheet by asking the court, either through an enforcement paragraph in the final judgment or through a separate order entered later. Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.560(c) requires the judge to include the enforcement paragraph in any final judgment when the prevailing party requests it, and the court has no discretion to refuse. The paragraph orders the judgment debtor to complete Form 1.977 under oath and serve it on the creditor or the creditor’s attorney within 45 days.

The 45 days run from the date the final judgment is entered. A debtor who learns of the judgment late does not get a new 45 days from the day the notice arrives. The debtor no longer has to complete the form if the judgment is paid in full or the court stays post-judgment discovery before the deadline.

A creditor can also ask for a separate order under Rule 1.560(b) at any time while the judgment is enforceable, even if the enforcement paragraph was left out of the original final judgment. The court sets its own deadline for that order, typically 45 days or another reasonable period.

A separate version of the fact information sheet exists for small claims judgments. Florida Small Claims Rule 7.221 provides for Form 7.343, the small-claims counterpart of Form 1.977, for judgments entered in county court small claims cases. The same 45-day rule applies. The small claims rules also allow a hearing in aid of execution, where the debtor answers questions under oath about earnings and assets. That hearing is available only when the creditor is an individual who had no attorney before the judgment.

What Does Form 1.977 Require?

Form 1.977 requires a judgment debtor to answer questions about income, accounts, property, and recent transfers under oath, and to attach the supporting records. The form has an individual version and a business-entity version, and the debtor signs either one before a notary under penalty of perjury.

Form 1.977(a) for Individuals

The individual form asks for personal identification, including the debtor’s Social Security and driver’s license numbers. It asks for the debtor’s employer, position, and rate of pay. The debtor then lists every checking and savings account with its account number, every parcel of real estate the debtor owns or is buying, and every vehicle with the balance owed on it. The form also asks who is head of the debtor’s household and what child support or alimony the debtor pays.

Two questions go beyond the debtor’s current holdings: whether anyone owes the debtor money, and whether the debtor has given, sold, loaned, or transferred any property worth more than $100 to anyone in the last year.

The individual form requires six attachments:

• The debtor’s last pay stub.
• The last three statements for each bank, savings, credit union, or other financial account.
• Motor vehicle registrations and titles.
• Deeds or titles to any real or personal property the debtor owns or is buying, or leases to property the debtor is renting.
• Financial statements, loan applications, or lists of assets and liabilities the debtor submitted to anyone within the last three years.
• The debtor’s last two income tax returns filed.

Form 1.977(b) for Corporations and Other Business Entities

The business version asks for the entity’s reported gross or taxable income for the last three years, whether it is an S corporation, and its average number of employees per month. It also asks for the name of every shareholder, member, or partner holding 5% or more of the entity’s equity. Officers, directors, members, and partners are listed by name as well. The entity lists its checking and savings accounts with account numbers, along with any vehicles and real property it owns.

The business form requires nine attachments:

• State and federal income tax returns for the past three years.
• Statements and account books for every account in which the entity had any interest during the past three years.
• All canceled checks for the 12 months before the form was served.
• Deeds, leases, mortgages, and other instruments showing any interest in real property during the 12 months before the lawsuit was filed.
• Bills of sale or other written evidence that the entity bought, sold, or gave away property during the 12 months before the lawsuit was filed.
• Titles and registrations for any vehicles or vessels the entity owns.
• Financial statements of the entity’s assets, liabilities, and owner’s equity prepared within the 12 months before the form was served.
• Minutes of all meetings the entity’s members, partners, shareholders, or directors held within two years before the form was served.
• Resolutions the members, partners, shareholders, or directors passed within the same two-year period.

Does the Form Require Spousal Information?

Yes, though the standard Form 1.977 asks only for the debtor’s marital status and the spouse’s name. A separate Spouse Related Portion of the form asks for the spouse’s address, Social Security number, employer, and income. Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.560(d) lets the court require that portion only when the creditor gives the court a reason to look into the spouse’s separate income and assets. A debtor whose spouse has substantial separate income or assets can expect the creditor to ask for that portion.

Creditors pursue spousal financial information for two reasons. The first is to find out whether the debtor moved assets to the non-debtor spouse in a fraudulent transfer a court could undo. The second is to test the debtor’s claim to the head of household exemption from wage garnishment. That exemption belongs to a debtor who provides more than half the support of a child or other dependent, so a spouse’s income bears directly on it.

How Must the Form Be Delivered?

The completed Form 1.977 and all attachments are mailed or delivered to the judgment creditor or, if the creditor has a lawyer, to the creditor’s attorney. The enforcement paragraph in Rule 1.560(c) calls this serving the form on the creditor’s attorney. The form’s own instruction, printed in capital letters, says to mail or deliver it and adds that it must not be filed with the clerk of court.

The reason is privacy. Form 1.977 contains Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, tax returns, and other sensitive financial data. Filing it with the clerk would make that information part of the public court record. Delivering the form only to the creditor or creditor’s counsel keeps the debtor’s financial details out of public view.

Nothing is filed with the clerk. The rule once required a separate notice of compliance, but the 2013 amendment to Rule 1.560 deleted that step. Mailing or delivering the completed form to the creditor or the creditor’s attorney satisfies the obligation, and no financial information enters the court file.

What Happens If You Don’t Fill Out the Fact Information Sheet?

A judgment debtor who does not fill out and deliver the fact information sheet by the court’s deadline can be held in contempt of court. The creditor first files a motion to compel, asking the court to order the debtor to complete the form by a new deadline. If the debtor misses that deadline, the creditor files a motion for an order to show cause, requiring the debtor to appear in court and explain the failure. If the debtor cannot provide a satisfactory explanation, the court may hold the debtor in civil contempt.

Civil contempt for failure to complete a fact information sheet can result in a writ of bodily attachment—effectively an arrest warrant. Florida courts have jailed debtors who refused to comply, typically allowing them to purge the contempt by completing the form within a set window.

Providing false information on the fact information sheet carries separate consequences. Because the form is signed under oath, intentional misstatements or omissions can expose the debtor to perjury charges.

A debtor who needs more time can ask the court for an extension before the deadline runs. The rule lets the court set any reasonable time, and complicated finances or records held by banks and accountants are the usual reasons for asking.

Can a Creditor Require More Than One Fact Information Sheet?

Yes—Florida law sets no limit on how many times a creditor can require the debtor to complete Form 1.977 while the judgment lasts. A Florida judgment is enforceable for 20 years, and the debtor’s financial circumstances can change substantially over that period.

Each new fact information sheet comes through a new court order under Rule 1.560(b), which the court enters at the creditor’s request. The rule sets no waiting period between requests and leaves only the deadline to the court’s discretion. A debtor whose finances have not changed can respond to a repeat demand by asking the court for a protective order, the same remedy available against any other burdensome discovery.

How Do Creditors Use the Information?

Bank account information from Form 1.977 gives the creditor what it needs to obtain a writ of garnishment and freeze the debtor’s accounts. The rest of the form points the creditor to its other remedies:

• Employment and income details show whether wage garnishment is worth pursuing and whether the debtor may claim head-of-household protection.
• Real property disclosures let the creditor record the judgment as a lien in each county where the debtor owns non-homestead property.
• Vehicle and personal property information identifies assets a sheriff can levy under a writ of execution.

The form’s question about property worth more than $100 given away or transferred in the last year tells the creditor which transfers to test under Florida’s fraudulent transfer statute, chapter 726. A transfer can be undone if the debtor made it with actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud a creditor. Courts infer that intent from the statute’s badges of fraud. The badges include a transfer to a family member or other insider, a transfer made after the debtor was sued or threatened with suit, and property the debtor kept using after giving it away.

A transfer can also be undone with no proof of intent if the debtor received less than reasonably equivalent value and was insolvent at the time or was left unable to pay debts as they came due. Either theory lets the court set the transfer aside so the creditor can reach the property.

The fact information sheet is one of several post-judgment discovery tools Rule 1.560(a) gives a judgment creditor. Once the form reveals an asset or a transfer, the creditor can follow it with interrogatories, document requests, and a deposition of the debtor, and can bring the person who received a transfer into the case through proceedings supplementary.

What Should a Debtor Know Before Completing the Form?

A judgment debtor is not required to volunteer more information than Form 1.977 asks. The form asks specific questions, and the debtor has to answer those questions truthfully and completely.

Many asset protection strategies remain effective after a judgment is entered. A debtor can still move non-exempt assets into exempt forms such as an annuity or a retirement account. A conversion into a statutory exempt asset made with intent to hinder, delay, or defraud the creditor can be undone under Florida’s fraudulent asset conversion statute, section 222.30. Homestead is the exception. Under Havoco v. Hill, putting non-exempt money into a Florida homestead is protected even when the purpose is keeping it from creditors, unless the money itself came from fraud or similar misconduct.

The time to finish any restructuring is before the debtor signs the fact information sheet, because the form creates a sworn snapshot of the debtor’s financial position at that moment. Every later transfer gets measured against the answers the debtor swore to on that date.