Garnishment

Garnishment is a post-judgment (and in some jurisdictions, pre-judgment) enforcement mechanism that allows a creditor to satisfy a debt by intercepting money or property owed to the debtor by a third party, known as the garnishee. The garnishee—commonly an employer or bank—is legally compelled to redirect the funds to the creditor rather than to the debtor.

The two most common forms are:

• Wage garnishment, where a portion of an employee's earnings is withheld each pay period.
• Bank or non-wage garnishment, where funds in a deposit account or owed by another party (such as a contractor) are frozen and turned over.

In the United States, federal law caps wage garnishment under Title III of the Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA), generally limiting garnishment to the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or the amount by which weekly earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage. Higher caps apply for child support, alimony, federal taxes, and federal student loans. Certain debts—notably IRS levies under the Internal Revenue Code and child support orders under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act—can be enforced administratively without a separate court judgment. Some states, including Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, broadly prohibit wage garnishment for ordinary consumer debts.

Internationally, civil-law systems use analogous procedures, such as saisie-arrêt in France and Pfändung in Germany, typically requiring a court order (Pfändungs- und Überweisungsbeschluss) and observing statutory exemption thresholds.

Certain categories of income are usually shielded from garnishment, including most Social Security benefits, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Veterans Affairs benefits, and many public assistance payments, although some of these protections lapse for child-support enforcement or federal debts. Procedurally, debtors are entitled to notice and an opportunity to claim exemptions, a due-process requirement reinforced by Sniadach v. Family Finance Corp. (1969), which struck down Wisconsin's pre-judgment wage garnishment statute.