Motion to Dissolve Writ of Garnishment in Florida: Deadline and Grounds

In Florida, a motion to dissolve a writ of garnishment is filed under Section 77.07 and must be filed and served within 20 days after the date on the plaintiff’s certificate of service for the notice required by Section 77.055. Miss that window and the court will strike the motion as a nullity, so the deadline drives everything else about how you approach the filing.¹

The 20-Day Deadline

The clock runs from the date shown on the plaintiff’s certificate of service, not the date you actually receive the papers. A slow mail day or an unchecked mailbox does not extend it. The statute contains no grace period and no good-cause exception, and courts treat a late motion as a nullity, leaving the case to proceed as if no challenge was raised.¹

The plaintiff’s obligation to send that notice is itself on a schedule. Within 5 days after receiving the garnishee’s answer, the plaintiff must mail you a copy of the answer along with a notice of your right to move to dissolve the writ within 20 days.² If that notice never came, or came late, note it. A failure by the plaintiff to serve the required notice properly can itself become a ground for challenging the garnishment.

Grounds That Support the Motion

A motion to dissolve attacks the factual basis for the writ. Under Section 77.07, you have to identify at least one specific allegation the creditor made in its motion for garnishment and state that it is untrue. If the denied allegation is not proven true at the hearing, the writ dissolves.¹

Untrue Allegations in the Motion for the Writ

The creditor had to swear to specific facts to get the writ issued. Common weak points include an overstated balance, unaccounted-for payments, or a claim that you hold assets with a particular garnishee when you do not. Any one of those, denied in your motion, forces the creditor to prove its allegation at the hearing.

Funds Belonging to Someone Else

A garnishment reaches only the debtor’s own property. When a joint account is frozen, money belonging to a co-owner who is not the debtor gets caught up in the writ. Section 77.07(2) gives “any other person having an ownership interest in the property, as disclosed by the garnishee’s answer” the right to file a motion to dissolve.¹ Deposit records, bank statements, and affidavits identifying the source of the funds are the usual proof.

Procedural Defects in Service and Notice

Florida’s garnishment procedure has multiple notice steps, and each is a place a creditor can fall short. Improper service of the writ, missed statutory notice deadlines, or a failure to include the required forms with the Notice to Defendant can each undercut the garnishment. Proper notice is a due-process requirement, and defects in service can support dissolution.

Automatic Dissolution After Six Months of Inaction

If the creditor fails to file either a dismissal or a motion for final judgment within 6 months after filing the writ, the garnishment automatically dissolves and the garnishee is released. The creditor can extend that period by another 6 months by serving a notice of extension on you and the garnishee, but the extension is not automatic; the creditor has to serve it.¹ Check the docket. If nothing happened in the required window and no extension notice was served, the writ is already gone.

How to File and Serve the Motion

File the motion in the same court that issued the writ, using the same case number. The motion should identify the parties, reference the writ, and specifically deny the allegations in the plaintiff’s motion for garnishment that you contend are untrue. General objections do not work. Point to the sworn statement, name what is wrong with it, and attach evidence where you have it: bank statements, payment records, affidavits, or documents showing that garnished funds belong to a third party.

Serve a copy on the creditor or the creditor’s attorney and on the garnishee. Do this within the same 20-day window that governs the filing itself. Filing fees vary by county. If you cannot afford them, you can apply for a determination of indigent status to have court costs waived; be prepared to document your income and expenses.

The Hearing and Who Has to Prove What

Section 77.07(1) directs the court to set the hearing on a motion to dissolve immediately.¹ Expect a short timeline.

The burden sits with the creditor. Once you have denied an allegation from the motion for the writ, the creditor must prove that allegation is true. You are not required to prove it false. If the creditor cannot carry that burden, the writ dissolves.¹

For a pre-judgment writ, the standard is stiffer for the creditor. In addition to defending the grounds it stated for the writ, the creditor must show a reasonable probability of winning the underlying case.

Bring what you have. Bank records tracing deposits, ledgers or receipts contradicting the balance the creditor claims, correspondence documenting payments, and affidavits from any joint account holder all go directly to the allegations the creditor has to defend.

If Your Real Argument Is That the Money Is Exempt

A motion to dissolve is the wrong tool when you agree the debt is valid but the money being taken is legally protected, such as head-of-family wages, Social Security, or other exempt benefits. Those arguments belong in a claim of exemption under Section 77.041, which has its own sworn form, its own 20-day filing window running from receipt of the Notice to Defendant, and its own default rules if the creditor fails to object in time.³ The two remedies are separate but not mutually exclusive; if the writ is both procedurally flawed and reaching exempt funds, you can pursue both at once.

After the Ruling

If the court grants the motion, it enters an order dissolving the writ, and the case proceeds as if no garnishment had issued.¹ The order typically directs the garnishee, whether that is your bank or your employer, to release any funds it was holding but had not yet turned over. Money already handed to the creditor before the ruling is a separate problem; recovering it requires a motion for restitution.

A partial dissolution is possible. A court may release some funds and allow the creditor to reach others, particularly when a single account holds a mix of protected and unprotected money.

If the court denies the motion, the garnishment stays in place. A denial based on thin evidence can sometimes be revisited with better documentation; a denial on the merits is harder to reopen without new facts. The creditor can appeal a dissolution order, but the writ remains dissolved during the appeal unless the creditor obtains a stay.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 77.07 – Dissolution of Writ
2
Online Sunshine. Florida Statutes 77.055 – Service of Garnishees Answer and Notice of Right to Dissolve Writ
3
Florida Senate. Florida Statutes 77.041 – Notice to Individual Defendant for Claim of Exemption From Garnishment; Procedure for Hearing