A garnishee is the third party, almost always an employer or a bank, that a court orders to turn over money or property it holds for someone who owes a debt. The garnishee doesn’t owe the creditor anything personally. They’re the middle link: a creditor who has already won a judgment uses the garnishee to reach the debtor’s wages or account balance, because the garnishee is the one actually holding the money.
The term shows up most often in two settings. When a creditor goes after a paycheck, the employer is the garnishee. When a creditor goes after a bank account, the bank is the garnishee. Anyone else holding the debtor’s funds can occupy the same role, including a tenant who owes rent to the debtor or a client who owes payment for services rendered.
The Three Parties in a Garnishment
Every garnishment action involves three distinct people or entities. The judgment creditor, sometimes called the garnishor, is the party owed the debt and the one who starts the process. The judgment debtor is the person who owes the money. The garnishee sits between them, holding wages, deposits, or other assets that belong to the debtor.1Legal Information Institute. Garnishee – Wex US Law
Think of the garnishee as a court-appointed intermediary. They aren’t being sued for their own conduct and they aren’t on the hook for the underlying debt. Their job is narrower: identify what they hold for the debtor, freeze or redirect it, and follow the court’s instructions.
How Someone Becomes a Garnishee
A party becomes a garnishee by being served with a writ of garnishment. The writ is a separate court order, issued after the creditor has won a judgment, authorizing seizure of the debtor’s assets from a third party.2Legal Information Institute. Writ of Garnishment – Wex US Law Once that writ is served, the garnishee’s legal duties kick in immediately.
Not every garnishment runs through a courtroom first. The IRS can levy wages administratively for unpaid taxes without filing a lawsuit at all.3Internal Revenue Service. Information About Wage Levies Federal agencies can garnish up to 15% of disposable pay for defaulted federal student loans and other delinquent nontax debts through administrative garnishment.4eCFR. 31 CFR 285.11 – Administrative Wage Garnishment Child support orders can trigger income withholding through state enforcement agencies on the same administrative footing. In each case, the employer or bank still ends up as the garnishee; only the paperwork getting them there is different.
What a Garnishee Must Do
Being named as a garnishee is not optional, and the obligations are specific. Once the writ is served, the garnishee has to:
- Respond to the court within the deadline stated in the order.
- Disclose what assets they hold belonging to the debtor.
- Hold or withhold those assets until the court directs otherwise.
- Eventually turn the funds over to the court or the creditor as instructed.
For an employer, that means withholding a portion of each paycheck going forward until the judgment is satisfied. For a bank, it usually means freezing the amount specified in the order out of the debtor’s account on the day the writ arrives.
The debtor is normally notified and given a window to object or claim exemptions before any money actually leaves the garnishee’s hands. The length of that window depends on state law.
Penalties for a Garnishee Who Ignores the Order
A garnishee who disregards the writ or releases the debtor’s money anyway can be hit with a default judgment for the full amount of the creditor’s claim.1Legal Information Institute. Garnishee – Wex US Law In effect, the garnishee becomes personally responsible for a debt that was never theirs.
The exposure is generally capped at whatever amount the garnishee held between the time of service and their response, but that cap offers little comfort when the sum is large. For employers and smaller banks that lack a routine process for handling writs, ignoring one is among the most expensive administrative mistakes available.
Limits on What the Garnishee Can Take
Federal law places ceilings on what a garnishee can withhold from wages, and some income is protected entirely. The caps apply to “disposable earnings,” meaning what’s left after legally required deductions like federal and state income taxes, Social Security, and Medicare.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1672 – Definitions
For ordinary consumer debts such as credit cards and medical bills, the garnishee may take the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or the amount by which weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment Child support and alimony allow a larger share, up to 50% or 60% depending on whether the debtor is supporting another dependent, with an extra 5% if payments are more than 12 weeks behind. A handful of states, including Texas, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and South Carolina, prohibit private creditors from garnishing wages at all, though government debts and support orders still reach through.
Certain income is off-limits to most private creditors. Social Security benefits, Supplemental Security Income, Veterans’ benefits, federal retirement payments, and federal student aid are generally exempt from garnishment for ordinary debts.7Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Can a Debt Collector Take My Federal Benefits Pension and retirement funds in ERISA-governed plans are broadly shielded as well.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 1056 – Form and Payment of Benefits Social Security can still be reached for child support, alimony, back taxes, and some other government debts, but SSI stays exempt even from child support because it’s need-based rather than earnings-based.9Administration for Children & Families. Garnishment of Supplemental Security Income Benefits
When a bank is the garnishee and the account receives direct deposits of federal benefits, the bank is required to review the account within two business days of receiving the order and leave a protected amount accessible without any paperwork from the account holder.10eCFR. 31 CFR 212.5 – Account Review
If You’re the Debtor: Protections and Objections
If you receive notice that a garnishee has been served, you have the right to object. The usual mechanism is a claim of exemption, a written filing telling the court that your income or assets should be shielded. Common grounds include:
- Income from exempt sources such as Social Security or disability benefits.
- A withholding that exceeds the federal or state cap for your income.
- A debt already paid or satisfied in full.
- A debt eliminated through bankruptcy.
Procedure varies by state, but you generally file the objection with the court, the creditor can respond, and a hearing is scheduled if the exemption is contested. The hearing is limited to whether the garnishment itself is proper; you cannot relitigate the underlying judgment there.2Legal Information Institute. Writ of Garnishment – Wex US Law Deadlines are short, sometimes only days after notice, so moving quickly matters.
One protection worth knowing about: an employer cannot fire you because your wages were garnished for a single debt. An employer who does faces a fine of up to $1,000, up to one year in prison, or both.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1674 – Restriction on Discharge From Employment by Reason of Garnishment The federal shield covers garnishment for “any one indebtedness,” so once orders from multiple creditors stack up, that particular protection no longer applies, though some states go further.