Florida garnishment laws let a creditor with a court judgment take money from your paycheck or bank account, but the state adds one of the strongest wage protections in the country on top of the federal cap. If you qualify as head of a family and your disposable earnings are $750 or less per week, your wages are fully exempt from garnishment for ordinary debts unless you signed a specific written waiver.1Online Sunshine. Florida Code 222.11 – Exemption of Wages From Garnishment Everyone else is covered by the federal rule capping ordinary wage garnishment at 25% of disposable earnings, or the amount above $217.50 per week, whichever is less.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment
What a Creditor Has to Do Before They Can Garnish You
In Florida, any person or company that has filed a lawsuit against you, or already won a judgment, can ask the court for a writ of garnishment.3Online Sunshine. Florida Code 77.01 – Right to Writ of Garnishment Most garnishments come after a judgment, which is the easier route for the creditor: they file a motion stating the judgment and the unpaid balance, and the writ issues.
Pre-judgment garnishment is harder. The creditor has to swear out a motion explaining the claim, the amount owed, and why they believe you don’t have enough property in the county to satisfy a later judgment. They also have to post a bond worth double the amount of the debt, which pays out to you if the garnishment turns out to be improper.4Online Sunshine. Florida Code 77.031 – Issuance of Writ Before Judgment If a pre-judgment writ was based on anything untrue, you can move to dissolve it and recover costs, damages, and attorney fees against the bond.
Once the writ is issued, it goes to whoever holds your money or pays you: your bank, your employer, or anyone else who owes you money. That third party is called the garnishee, and they are required to answer the writ under oath and hold onto your funds until the court sorts out who gets what.
How Much of Your Paycheck Can Be Taken
Federal law sets the baseline that applies to everyone. For ordinary debts, a creditor can take the lesser of these two numbers each week:
- 25% of your disposable earnings, or
- The amount by which your disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage.
With the federal minimum wage at $7.25 per hour, that second figure is $217.50 per week.5U.S. Department of Labor. State Minimum Wage Laws If you take home $217.50 or less in disposable earnings per week, nothing can be garnished for ordinary debts.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment
Here is how the math works. If your weekly disposable earnings are $500, then 25% is $125, and the amount above $217.50 is $282.50. The creditor gets the lesser number, which is $125. If your disposable earnings are $300, 25% is $75 and the excess over $217.50 is $82.50, so the creditor gets $75. You always keep at least 75% of your disposable earnings, or $217.50, whichever leaves more in your pocket.
Wages don’t get garnished all at once. Florida uses a continuing writ for wage garnishment, which means your employer keeps deducting from each paycheck and sending the money to the creditor until the judgment is paid off or the court says to stop.6Online Sunshine. Florida Code 77.0305 – Continuing Writ of Garnishment Against Salary or Wages This applies to private employers and to government employers alike; the state has waived sovereign immunity for this purpose. Your employer can also take a small administrative fee out of your pay, up to $5 for the first deduction and $2 for each one after that, so your actual take-home drops by a little more than the garnishment itself.
Florida’s Head-of-Family Exemption
This is the protection that makes Florida different. If you provide more than half the support for a child or other dependent, you qualify as head of a family. For ordinary debts, your entire paycheck is exempt from garnishment if your disposable earnings are $750 or less per week, which is roughly $39,000 per year.1Online Sunshine. Florida Code 222.11 – Exemption of Wages From Garnishment
If you earn more than $750 per week and still qualify as head of family, your wages are still off limits unless you signed a written waiver when you took on the debt. Florida sets strict rules for that waiver: it must be in the same language as the underlying contract, printed in a separate attached document, displayed in at least 14-point type, and include a disclosure that you are giving up garnishment protection. Even with a valid waiver, the creditor still can’t take more than the federal 25% cap.
The exemption is not automatic. You have to claim it, in writing, under oath, and quickly. More on that below.
Child Support and Alimony Are Different
Garnishment for child support or alimony runs on a separate, much higher scale, and the head-of-family exemption does not apply. If you are supporting another spouse or dependent child, up to 50% of your disposable earnings can be taken. If you aren’t supporting another spouse or dependent child, the ceiling is 60%. Both numbers go up by another 5% if you are more than 12 weeks behind, maxing out at 55% or 65%.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment
If you are head of a family and getting hit with a support garnishment, Florida’s wage exemption will not save you.
Bank Accounts and Income That Can’t Be Touched
Some income is fully off limits no matter how much is in your account. Florida protects Social Security benefits, Supplemental Security Income, veterans’ benefits, disability payments, retirement pensions, and unemployment compensation from garnishment.7Online Sunshine. Florida Code 77.041 – Notice to Individual Defendant for Claim of Exemption From Garnishment
When those federal benefits are direct-deposited to a bank account, federal regulations require the bank to perform an automatic review within two business days of receiving a garnishment order. The bank looks back two months and identifies any federal benefit payments deposited during that window. It then calculates a protected amount equal to the lesser of those deposits or your current balance, and leaves that amount accessible to you without you having to go to court.8eCFR. 31 CFR Part 212 – Garnishment of Accounts Containing Federal Benefit Payments
The automatic protection only covers directly deposited federal benefits. If the same account also holds wages or other non-exempt money, those portions can still be frozen until you file a claim of exemption.
Bank account garnishment also works differently from wage garnishment in one important respect: it is a one-time freeze on whatever is in the account when the writ is served, not an ongoing deduction. Money deposited after the writ is served is generally reachable only by a new writ.
How to Claim an Exemption
When a garnishment is served, Florida law requires the notice to include a form for claiming exemptions and requesting a hearing.7Online Sunshine. Florida Code 77.041 – Notice to Individual Defendant for Claim of Exemption From Garnishment You file a sworn claim identifying which exemption applies and the facts behind it, such as head-of-family status or that the funds are Social Security.
After you file, the creditor has a short window to contest it. If the creditor does not file a sworn written statement disputing your exemption within 8 business days of hand delivery, or 14 business days if the claim was served by mail, the clerk dissolves the writ automatically. No hearing is needed. If the creditor does contest it, the court schedules a hearing.
For the head-of-family exemption, Florida sets an even faster trigger. If you swear under oath that the garnished money is for your personal labor and that you are the head of a family residing in the state, the creditor has only 2 business days to deny those facts under oath. If they don’t, all garnishment proceedings stop.9Justia Law. Florida Code 222.12 – Proceedings for Exemption
There is also a 20-day deadline that matters separately. After the garnishee files its answer, the creditor must mail you a copy within five days, along with a notice of your right to challenge the writ. You then have 20 days from the certificate of service to file a motion to dissolve the garnishment if anything in the creditor’s original motion was false.10Online Sunshine. Florida Code 77.055 – Service of Garnishee Answer and Notice of Right to Dissolve Writ File late and the court will strike your motion as if you defaulted.
Don’t wait. Every pay period that goes by without the exemption on file is money that may be hard to recover.
Can You Be Fired Over a Garnishment?
Federal law prohibits your employer from firing you because your wages are being garnished for a single debt, no matter how many separate deductions or hearings that one debt produces. An employer who violates the rule can be fined up to $1,000, jailed for up to a year, or both.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1674 – Restriction on Discharge From Employment by Reason of Garnishment
The protection stops at one debt. If a second creditor also garnishes your wages for a separate debt, federal law no longer prevents your employer from terminating you over the garnishments. Resolving or consolidating debts before a second garnishment lands can make the difference in keeping your job.
When Bankruptcy Is the Emergency Stop
Filing a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition triggers an automatic stay that halts all garnishment activity immediately. The creditor has to stop collecting the moment the case is filed.
Garnishment payments taken within 90 days before the filing may count as preferential transfers that you or the bankruptcy trustee can claw back, if the payments were involuntary, the money would have been exempt, and at least $600 was taken during that window. Bankruptcy carries its own long-term costs, but for someone facing multiple active garnishments, the stay is the one tool that stops the bleeding right away.