Writ of Garnishment in Florida

A Florida writ of garnishment is a court order issued under Chapter 77 that directs a third party, called the garnishee, to turn over money or property belonging to a judgment debtor. The garnishee is typically a bank, an employer, a brokerage firm, or any other person or entity holding the debtor’s assets. Service of the writ immediately freezes the debtor’s property in the garnishee’s hands.

Florida courts construe the garnishment statutes strictly against creditors. A single procedural defect in filing, service, or notice can result in the writ being dissolved and frozen funds released, even when the underlying debt is valid.

Who Can Obtain a Writ of Garnishment in Florida?

Any creditor who has filed a lawsuit to recover a debt, or who has already obtained a money judgment, may apply for a writ of garnishment. A plaintiff still waiting on a judgment can garnish only in an action on a debt, and only with a court order and a bond. Credit card companies, medical providers, business partners, and private individuals holding judgments all use garnishment to collect.

A creditor does not need to show that other collection methods have failed. Garnishment can run alongside execution and levy, judgment liens, and proceedings supplementary. Nothing in Chapter 77 limits a creditor to one writ at a time. In Cullen v. Marsh, 34 So. 3d 235 (Fla. 3d DCA 2010), the creditor pursued a continuing writ against the debtor’s employer and separate writs against the debtor’s bank in the same collection effort.

What Does Florida’s Garnishment Statute (Chapter 77) Require?

Chapter 77 of the Florida Statutes governs every Florida garnishment, from the creditor’s first motion to the writ’s dissolution. Each step of the procedure comes from a specific section:

• § 77.02. No writ may issue before judgment in any action sounding in tort.
• § 77.031. A pre-judgment writ requires a verified motion, an order of the court, and a bond of at least double the amount of the debt demanded.
• § 77.0305. A continuing writ against salary or wages issues from the court and runs against the debtor’s employer.
• § 77.04. The garnishee must serve its answer within 20 days, stating what it owes the debtor and what property of the debtor it holds.
• § 77.041. The debtor receives a notice and a Claim of Exemption form, mailed within 5 business days after the writ issues or 3 business days after service, whichever is later. An exemption claim the creditor does not timely oppose dissolves the writ automatically.
• § 77.055. Within 5 days after the garnishee answers, the creditor must serve the answer and a 20-day dissolution notice on the debtor and on any other disclosed owner.
• § 77.06. The writ reaches debts the garnishee owes the debtor and the debtor’s property the garnishee holds, starting at service and ending when the garnishee answers. A garnishee in good-faith doubt may hold property and report it without liability.
• § 77.061. If the creditor does not reply to the garnishee’s answer within 20 days, the answer is taken as true.
• § 77.07. The debtor may move to dissolve the writ within 20 days of the creditor’s notice. The writ dissolves automatically if the creditor does not seek final judgment or dismissal within six months of filing it.
• § 77.081. A garnishee that does not answer may be defaulted, and § 77.083 caps any judgment against a garnishee at the lesser of the unpaid judgment or the garnishee’s own liability to the debtor.
• § 77.19. The garnishee may not retain more than double the amount stated in the writ.
• § 77.28. The creditor must pay the garnishee $100 toward its attorney fee on demand after service, and the court taxes the garnishee’s remaining costs and fees at the end of the case.

How Does a Creditor File a Writ of Garnishment?

A creditor files a Motion for Writ of Garnishment with the clerk of the court that entered the judgment. Under § 77.03, the motion must state the amount of the judgment. The motion also identifies the garnishee to be served and itemizes accrued interest and costs. The creditor must also pay the clerk’s filing fee. Florida law separately requires the creditor to pay $100 toward the garnishee’s attorney fee for answering the writ. The $100 is payable on the garnishee’s demand at any time after the writ is served.

The clerk issues the writ once the motion meets statutory requirements. No judge’s order is needed for an ordinary post-judgment writ directed at a bank or another third party holding the debtor’s property. The motion can be filed ex parte, meaning without advance notice to the debtor. The creditor then arranges service on the garnishee through the sheriff’s office or a process server. The sheriff’s service fee, set by statute at $40, is recoverable as a cost of collection.

What Happens When a Bank Is Served with a Writ?

Service of the writ creates a lien on the debts the bank owes the debtor and on the debtor’s property in the bank’s hands (§ 77.06). The bank freezes every account carrying the debtor’s name, including joint accounts, accounts holding nothing but exempt funds, and business accounts the debtor merely signs on.

A frozen account is not always a reachable one. An account owned by a business is not the debtor’s property even when the debtor signs its checks. The freeze on that account should not survive the bank’s answer. Section 77.06(3) protects a bank that holds property while in good-faith doubt about whether the writ covers it. Banks freeze broadly and let the court sort out exemptions because of that safe harbor and the risk of liability for releasing funds they should have held.

The freeze is capped at double the amount stated in the writ. Anything above the cap remains accessible to the debtor.

Bank accounts that receive direct-deposited federal benefits such as Social Security get additional protection under federal law. The bank must perform an automatic review and protect up to two months of federal benefit deposits without requiring the debtor to take any action. The protected amount remains accessible even while the rest of the account is frozen. This automatic protection applies only to electronically deposited federal benefits, not to benefits deposited by paper check.

What Notice Must the Creditor Provide?

The creditor must send the debtor several documents by first-class mail: the motion, the writ, and a Notice to Defendant that includes a Claim of Exemption form. The mailing deadline is five business days after the clerk issues the writ, or three business days after the writ is served on the garnishee, whichever is later.

Missing this mailing deadline is one of the most common procedural errors creditors make. Trial courts have dissolved writs on that ground alone. In Cullen v. Marsh, the trial court dissolved a continuing writ and a bank writ because the creditor missed the § 77.041(2) mailing deadline. The debtor had learned of the garnishment anyway and claimed exemptions on time. The only issue on appeal was a sanctions award against the creditor and her attorney. The Third District reversed it, holding that the lapse left the writs’ factual and legal basis intact.

How Does the Garnishee Answer?

The garnishee must answer within 20 days of being served. Under § 77.04, the answer must also be served on the creditor. The answer must state whether the garnishee holds money or property belonging to the debtor, how much it holds, and how each account is titled. For bank garnishments, the answer typically lists every account bearing the debtor’s name and each account’s balance when the writ was served.

A garnishee that does not answer within 20 days is subject to a default under § 77.081(1). The default settles that the garnishee is liable for the debtor’s property; it does not settle the amount. The creditor still must give the garnishee notice and prove how much of the debtor’s money the garnishee held. The judgment against the garnishee is capped under § 77.083 at the lesser of the unpaid judgment or what the garnishee owed the debtor.

In Security Bank, N.A. v. BellSouth Advertising & Publishing Corp., 679 So. 2d 795 (Fla. 3d DCA 1996), the court set aside a $36,576 default judgment against a bank that held $374 of the debtor’s money. The Florida Supreme Court approved that decision, 698 So. 2d 254 (Fla. 1997), which settles the rule statewide.

Section 77.055 gives the creditor 5 days after the garnishee answers to mail the debtor the answer and a notice that the 20-day dissolution clock is running. The creditor must send the same package to anyone the answer names as an owner of the property. The debtor’s 20-day clock runs from the certificate of service on that notice, so a creditor who never sends it never starts the clock and hands the debtor a procedural objection.

If the creditor believes the garnishee’s answer is incomplete or false, the creditor may file a reply within 20 days to challenge it. The court then schedules a hearing. If the creditor does not file a reply, the garnishee’s answer is taken as true, and the garnishee may surrender any disclosed property and be discharged.

How Does a Debtor Claim Exemptions?

Garnishment exemptions are not automatic in Florida. The debtor must claim them within 20 days. The claim is a notarized Claim of Exemption form filed with the court, with copies delivered to the creditor and the garnishee. The statutory form is the standard route, though Florida courts have also accepted a debtor’s own written claim of exemption.

The most frequently claimed exemptions include head of household wages, Social Security benefits, disability payments, retirement account distributions, annuity and life insurance proceeds, and bank accounts held by married spouses as tenants by the entireties.

Once a debtor files the claim, the creditor has 8 business days to object if the claim was hand-delivered, or 14 business days if mailed. If the creditor fails to object in time, the writ is automatically dissolved and the garnished funds are released without a hearing. If the creditor objects, the court schedules an evidentiary hearing where the debtor bears the burden of proving the exemption.

What Happens to Joint Accounts and Non-Debtor Owners?

A writ that reaches a joint bank account freezes the entire balance, even though the non-debtor co-owner’s money is not subject to the judgment. Chapter 77 gives the co-owner two routes to challenge the freeze, and neither is a motion to intervene.

Section 77.055 requires the creditor to serve the garnishment papers on anyone the bank’s answer names as an account owner, and § 77.07(2) gives that person 20 days to move to dissolve the writ. Separately, § 77.16 lets the co-owner claim the funds by sworn affidavit, which sends the ownership question to a jury unless both sides waive one. The co-owner supports either route with bank statements and deposit records showing the source of each deposit. Commingled money is harder to document.

No Florida court has held that a creditor takes the whole balance when the deposits cannot be traced. The co-owner’s share is measured by what the co-owner contributed, together with a proportional share of the interest it earned.

Married couples have a stronger defense. Under § 655.79, Florida law presumes that any joint account held by both spouses is a tenants by the entireties account, which is fully protected when the judgment runs against only one spouse. Creditors who garnish an entireties account often do not know, or do not care, that the funds may be exempt. If the bank’s account agreement disclaims entireties ownership, that contractual language may override the statutory presumption. Married couples should confirm their bank’s documentation does not disclaim entireties ownership.

How Does Bank Account Garnishment Differ from Wage Garnishment?

A bank garnishment reaches the funds in the account when the writ is served and any deposits that arrive before the bank answers, which it must do within 20 days (§ 77.04). Unlike a continuing writ of wage garnishment, a bank garnishment does not capture deposits made after the bank answers. If the creditor wants to reach later deposits, the creditor must obtain and serve a new writ. There is no limit on the number of successive writs a creditor may file.

A continuing writ runs only against the debtor’s employer and reaches only salary or wages. Other payment streams, including rent, amounts due an independent contractor, and accounts receivable, must be reached writ by writ.

Federal law caps a wage garnishment at the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or the amount by which weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage.

Florida adds § 222.11, which exempts all the disposable earnings of a head of family earning $750 a week or less. Earnings above that figure are protected unless the debtor signed a separate written waiver. A debtor who provides more than half the support of a child or other dependent is a head of family. The federal cap reaches a head of family’s wages only after a waiver.

When Can a Writ of Garnishment Be Dissolved?

A writ of garnishment can be dissolved on three independent grounds: the garnished funds are exempt, the creditor committed a procedural error, or the creditor cannot prove the allegations in its motion once the debtor denies them.

Writs have been dissolved for notice failures, including missing the mailing deadline and omitting the Claim of Exemption form. A creditor who fails to serve the garnishee’s answer and the 20-day dissolution notice never starts the debtor’s response clock and gives the debtor a further objection. A single missed deadline or omitted document can release all frozen funds.

Section 77.07(5) starts a six-month clock when the writ is filed. If the creditor has not filed a dismissal or a motion for final judgment within six months, the writ dissolves automatically and the garnishee is discharged from further liability under it. The bank releases the frozen funds without anyone asking the court.

One six-month extension is available. The creditor must serve the garnishee and the debtor with a notice of extension, then file a certificate of service before the first six months run out.

The dissolution is self-executing. Litigation activity does not stop the clock. In Akerman Senterfitt & Eidson, P.A. v. Value Seafood, Inc., 121 So. 3d 83 (Fla. 3d DCA 2013), the writs dissolved even though the creditor had set the case for trial. Dissolution ends that writ, not the creditor’s judgment; the same case allows the creditor to serve a fresh writ afterward.

If the writ is dissolved because of the creditor’s errors, the creditor may owe the garnishee’s costs and attorney fees.

Can a Writ of Garnishment Be Issued Before Judgment?

Florida permits pre-judgment garnishment under § 77.031, but only in contract actions, not tort. The creditor must file a verified motion alleging specific facts about the debt and must post a bond of at least double the amount of the debt demanded. The writ issues only from the court or from the clerk on the court’s order. The bond pays the costs, damages, and attorney fees the debtor sustains if the writ was improperly obtained.

Pre-judgment garnishment is rare because most creditors are unwilling to post the required bond. When a pre-judgment writ does issue, the debtor retains all rights to claim exemptions and challenge it on procedural grounds.

How to Respond to a Writ of Garnishment

A debtor who receives garnishment paperwork has 20 days to respond to the garnishment and claim exemptions. Florida courts enforce the deadline against debtors too. In Zivitz v. Zivitz, 16 So. 3d 841 (Fla. 2d DCA 2009), a debtor lost a $190,388 homestead-proceeds exemption claim because it was filed late.

A debtor has three ways to respond. First, if the garnished funds are exempt, the debtor should file the Claim of Exemption form with the court and deliver copies to the creditor and garnishee. Many creditor attorneys voluntarily dissolve a garnishment when presented with proof of a valid exemption.

Second, even when funds are not exempt, the debtor should review the garnishment paperwork for procedural defects. Experienced creditor attorneys frequently miss at least one technical requirement in Chapter 77. A procedural violation gives the court grounds to dissolve the writ.

Third, a debtor who has been sued or already owes a judgment can plan before any writ is served. A Florida asset protection plan keeps bank accounts titled as tenants by the entireties, holds exempt funds in separate accounts, and documents dependent support for the head of household exemption.