A Fi Fa in Georgia (short for fieri facias) is a writ a court clerk issues after a final money judgment, giving the winning party the power to place a lien on the losing party’s property and collect through garnishment or a sheriff’s sale. It is not a separate lawsuit. It is the enforcement tool that turns a paper judgment into real pressure on your assets, and it stays enforceable for seven years before going dormant.
What a Fi Fa Is and When It Issues
A Fi Fa cannot issue until a court enters a final judgment and that judgment is signed by the winning party, that party’s attorney, or the presiding judge.1FindLaw. Georgia Code Title 9 Civil Practice 9-13-1 “Final” means the judgment is no longer subject to appeal, or has already survived one. The creditor then applies to the court clerk with the judgment amount and any accrued interest, pays a filing fee that varies by county, and the clerk issues the writ.
Issuance alone authorizes collection efforts, but the Fi Fa does not become a lien on your real property until it is recorded.
How the Lien Attaches to Your Property
The Fi Fa is recorded on the general execution docket, kept by the Clerk of Superior Court.2Fulton County Magistrate Court, GA. Writs of Fieri Facias (FiFa) A creditor can record it in any county where you own real property or other seizable assets. Recording is what creates the lien and puts the world on notice, so a title search will flag it for anyone thinking about buying your property or lending against it.
Priority follows the order of recording. A Fi Fa recorded first is paid first from any proceeds. The lien also reaches future interests in personal property: those interests cannot be seized and sold outright, but the lien attaches and prevents transfer until your right to possession begins.3Georgia eLaws. Georgia Code Section 9-13-56 – Future Interests in Personalty
How Creditors Collect on a Fi Fa
Levy and Sheriff’s Sale
With a recorded Fi Fa, the creditor can direct the local sheriff to levy on your assets. The sheriff identifies, seizes, and inventories property subject to the writ. You have the right to designate which property is levied on first, which matters when you want to steer the sheriff away from an essential asset (a work vehicle, for example) toward something of equal value.4Justia. Georgia Code 9-13-50 – Designation by Defendant of Property to Be Levied On
Seized property goes to a sheriff’s sale. Georgia requires the levying officer to advertise the sale weekly for four consecutive weeks in the county’s legal organ.5Justia. Georgia Code 9-13-140 – How Judicial Sales Advertised Sales happen on the first Tuesday of the month between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. at public outcry. If that Tuesday falls on New Year’s Day or Independence Day, the sale moves to the next Wednesday.6Justia. Georgia Code 9-13-161 – Where and When Sales Under Execution Held Bulky items like lumber, machinery, or large crop quantities can be sold where they sit, as long as the advertisement describes the property and states the location.
Garnishment
Instead of seizing physical property, a creditor can garnish your wages or bank accounts. Georgia’s garnishment statute reaches all debts owed to you by the garnishee when the summons is served, plus money or property coming into the garnishee’s hands between service and the answer date.7Justia. Georgia Code 18-4-20 – Property Subject to Garnishment Generally Payments the garnishee makes to you after service do not defeat the lien, so cashing out an account once you know about the garnishment will not help.
Wage garnishment follows the federal ceiling: the lesser of 25 percent of disposable earnings or the amount by which weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage. If your disposable income sits at or below that floor, none of it can be garnished.
Property You Can Protect
Georgia shields specific categories of property from Fi Fa enforcement. You can protect up to $21,500 in equity in a residence or a burial plot, along with capped amounts of household goods, tools of the trade, and certain insurance benefits.8Justia. Georgia Code 44-13-100 – Exemptions for Purposes of Bankruptcy and Garnishment These exemptions are not automatic. You have to claim them by filing the proper paperwork with the court, and skipping that step means losing the protection even for property that would otherwise qualify.
Federal benefits get a separate layer of protection. Social Security, SSI, veterans’ benefits, military pay, and federal retirement payments deposited by direct deposit into a bank account are shielded from garnishment. When a bank receives a garnishment order, it must review the account and protect two months’ worth of directly deposited federal benefits.9Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Can a Debt Collector Take My Federal Benefits, Like Social Security or VA Payments? Anything above that cushion can be taken. Paper checks do not trigger the automatic protection, which is why direct deposit matters. SSI is fully protected even against government debts and child support; regular Social Security can still be garnished for back taxes, federal student loans, and support obligations.
How Long a Fi Fa Lasts and What It Costs You Over Time
A Georgia judgment accrues interest annually at the prime rate published by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, plus a statutory percentage.10Justia. Georgia Code 7-4-12 – Interest on Judgments Left alone for years, a modest judgment can grow considerably.
The writ has a shelf life. A judgment becomes dormant if seven years pass after entry without an execution being issued, and a dormant judgment cannot be enforced.11Justia. Georgia Code 9-12-60 – When Judgment Becomes Dormant Do not read that as an expiration date you can quietly wait out, though. A creditor who issues execution within the seven-year window resets the enforcement period.
Pushing Back Against a Fi Fa
You have several ways to challenge Fi Fa enforcement. The most direct is attacking the underlying judgment. If you were never properly served with the original lawsuit, or the judgment was entered by default due to clerical error, a court may vacate or modify it, which knocks out the Fi Fa built on top.
Procedural defects in the writ or the levy itself also open the door to relief. A levy on property that clearly belongs to a third party, an error in the amount stated on the writ, or a failure to follow the advertising and sale rules can each be challenged by motion in the issuing court.
Active-duty military members have additional protection under federal law. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act lets a court reopen a default judgment entered against a servicemember during active duty (or within 60 days of discharge) if military service materially affected the ability to defend the case and the member has a valid defense.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 50 U.S. Code 3931 – Protection of Servicemembers Against Default Judgments The application to reopen must be filed within 90 days after the end of military service.
What Bankruptcy Does and Doesn’t Do
Filing bankruptcy triggers an automatic stay that immediately halts most collection activity, including enforcement of existing judgments and any pending levy or garnishment tied to a Fi Fa.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 362 – Automatic Stay A creditor who keeps pushing after the filing risks sanctions.
The stay is not the whole story. A Fi Fa lien recorded before bankruptcy does not disappear just because you get a discharge. You have to file a motion to avoid the judicial lien under the Bankruptcy Code to strip it from exempt property, and only to the extent the lien impairs an exemption you would otherwise be entitled to claim.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 U.S. Code 522 – Exemptions Skip that step and the lien survives the bankruptcy, ready to be enforced against the property once the case closes. Liens securing nondischargeable debts (fraud judgments, domestic support) generally cannot be avoided at all.
What Shows Up in Public Records
Once recorded on the general execution docket, a Fi Fa is public. Credit reporting agencies and anyone running a background check (lenders, landlords, some employers) can find it. The lien clouds your title to real property, so selling or refinancing becomes very difficult until it is satisfied. Any sale proceeds must clear the Fi Fa debt before you see money, which is why many debtors end up negotiating a payoff to close a transaction.
Addressing the debt early is almost always cheaper than waiting. Interest keeps running, enforcement costs stack, and the recorded lien signals to future creditors that a court-backed obligation is already sitting against you.