How to Fill Out and Submit Florida Form 1.977: Fact Information Sheet

If a Florida court has ordered you to complete the Florida Form 1.977 Fact Information Sheet, you have 45 days from the date of that order to fill it out, gather six categories of attachments, and hand the whole package to the judgment creditor. You do not file it with the court. The form is a sworn financial disclosure required under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.560(b), and ignoring it can be treated as contempt of court.¹

Get the Right Version of the Form

There are two versions. Form 1.977(a) is for individual debtors. Form 1.977(b) is for corporate and other business debtors. If you operate as a sole proprietor, the creditor may ask you to complete both.

Most debtors receive the form as part of the final judgment packet. If yours is missing, individual Florida circuit court websites host free fillable PDFs. The 15th Judicial Circuit posts the individual version on its forms page,¹ and The Florida Bar maintains the form text.²

Complete the Individual Form (1.977a)

Before you write anything, pull your most recent pay stub, your last two tax returns, three months of bank statements, vehicle titles, and any property deeds. The form is signed under oath, so working with the actual documents in front of you matters.

Personal and Family Information

The top of the form asks for your full legal name, any nicknames or aliases, residence address, mailing address if different, home and business phone numbers, Social Security number, date of birth, and driver’s license number with issuing state. If you are married, you provide your spouse’s name, address, Social Security number, date of birth, employer, and average income. Children’s names, ages, and addresses are also required.¹

Employment and Income

List your employer’s name and address, your job title, your rate of pay, your average paycheck and pay frequency, and any average commissions or bonuses. A separate line captures other personal income. The form also asks whether you qualify as head of household. That designation affects how much of your wages a creditor can garnish, so answer it carefully.

Bank Accounts and Investments

List every checking and savings account by bank name and account number. Other investments — stocks, mutual funds, savings bonds, annuities — go on the back of the form or on an additional sheet.² Don’t leave a small account off because you think the balance doesn’t matter. Omitting an account from a sworn statement causes far worse problems than disclosing a modest balance.

Real Estate and Vehicles

For each piece of real property, provide the address, every name on the title, the mortgage holder, the balance owed, and the monthly payment. For each vehicle, provide the year, make, model, color, VIN, tag number, mileage, names on the title, estimated present value, the lender, the loan balance, and the monthly payment.

Transfers and Money Owed to You

One question asks whether you have given, sold, loaned, or transferred any property worth more than $100 in the past year. Creditors use this to look for fraudulent transfers. Another asks you to list any money owed to you by third parties, including amount, the debtor’s name and address, and the reason.

Complete the Business Form (1.977b)

Corporate debtors and other business entities complete Form 1.977(b) instead. It asks for the entity’s taxpayer identification number, an inventory and equipment list, and accounts receivable and accounts payable ledgers.² It also requires financial statements and any other business records showing assets and liabilities prepared within the 12 months before the judgment date.

Attach the Six Required Documents

The form itself is only part of the package. The printed instructions list six categories of documents you must attach:¹

Your single most recent pay stub, not a full month’s worth.
The last three statements for every bank, savings, credit union, or other financial account you hold.
Registrations and titles for all motor vehicles.
Deeds or titles to any real or personal property you own or are buying, plus leases for property you rent.
Any financial statements, loan applications, or asset-and-liability lists you submitted to anyone within the last three years.
Your last two federal income tax returns as filed.

Missing even one category gives the creditor grounds to argue you haven’t complied. If a category doesn’t apply — you don’t own a vehicle, for example — note that on the form rather than leaving a blank without explanation.

Jointly Held Property

Property you own jointly with your spouse still gets disclosed. Florida strongly protects property held as tenancy by the entireties, and a creditor with a judgment against only one spouse generally cannot force a sale or place a lien on that property.³ The protection covers real estate, bank accounts, investment accounts, and tangible personal property like artwork and jewelry, as long as ownership is properly structured that way. It disappears if both spouses are liable on the same debt, or if the IRS is pursuing federal tax obligations.

Deliver the Package to the Creditor, Not the Court

This is where debtors most often go wrong. The completed form and every attachment go directly to the judgment creditor’s attorney, or to the creditor if unrepresented.⁴ Filing your Social Security number, bank account numbers, and tax returns with the clerk would put all of it in the public record. Send the package by certified mail or hand delivery.

Once the creditor receives it, file a Notice of Compliance with the clerk of court.⁵ That notice is usually the last page in the form packet. It states the date you delivered the documents and the method of delivery, and it creates a court record proving you met the 45-day deadline if the creditor later claims otherwise.

What Happens If You Don’t Comply

The form warns on its face that failure to obey the order may be considered contempt of court.¹ The typical sequence: the creditor files a Motion to Compel after the 45-day window closes. The court sets a new deadline. If you still don’t respond, the creditor asks for an Order to Show Cause, and you have to appear and explain yourself to the judge.

Sanctions in contempt can include fines, an order to pay the creditor’s attorney fees for the enforcement effort, and, for willful defiance, incarceration until you produce the required information. Post-judgment interest also keeps accruing from the date of the judgment until it is paid in full,⁶ so delay adds directly to the total you owe.

Assets a Creditor Cannot Touch

Disclosing your finances on Form 1.977 doesn’t mean everything you list is available to the creditor. Florida law shields several categories of assets from collection.

Homestead

Your primary residence is protected from forced sale with no cap on value. The only size limits are half an acre inside a municipality and 160 acres outside one.⁷ Exceptions apply for property tax liens, purchase-money mortgages, and liens for labor or materials that improved the property.

Wages

If you provide more than half the support for a child or other dependent and your net weekly wages are $750 or less, those earnings are entirely exempt from garnishment. Heads of family earning more than $750 per week cannot have wages garnished unless they signed a separate written waiver meeting specific formatting requirements.⁸ For everyone else, federal law caps garnishment at 25 percent of disposable earnings or the amount by which weekly take-home pay exceeds 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage, whichever is less.

Personal Property and Vehicles

If you do not claim the homestead exemption, you can claim a personal property exemption of up to $4,000. Florida also provides a separate $1,000 constitutional exemption for personal property and a $5,000 vehicle exemption. These can be combined, so if your only significant asset is a car, up to $9,000 of its value can be protected.⁹

Retirement and Insurance

Pensions, 401(k) plans, Social Security, disability benefits, veterans’ benefits, unemployment compensation, and workers’ compensation are exempt from garnishment. Life insurance proceeds and the cash surrender value of life insurance policies are also protected under certain circumstances.⁹

Knowing what’s exempt is not a reason to leave anything off the form. Every asset gets listed. The exemptions govern what the creditor can actually collect, not what you have to disclose.

1
15th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. Florida Fact Information Sheet Form 1.977
2
The Florida Bar. Florida Form 7.343 – Fact Information Sheet
3
The Florida Bar. Turning Straw Into Gold: A Comprehensive Guide to Tenants by the Entirety in Florida
4
Circuit Court of the Fifth Judicial Circuit of Florida. Form 1.977 – Fact Information Sheet
5
Clay County Clerk of Court. Fact Information Sheet
6
Florida Legislature. The 2025 Florida Statutes Section 55.03
7
Florida Legislature. The 2025 Florida Statutes Chapter 222
8
Florida Legislature. The 2025 Florida Statutes Section 222.11
9
The Florida Bar. Consumer Pamphlet: Debtors Rights in Florida