Writ of Garnishment in Florida: Wages, Accounts, and Exemptions

A writ of garnishment in Florida is a court order that directs a third party, usually your bank or employer, to turn over your wages, account funds, or other property to pay a creditor who has a judgment against you. It is one of the most forceful collection tools in the state because it intercepts your money before you ever touch it. Chapter 77 of the Florida Statutes governs the process, and the same chapter, together with Chapter 222, gives you specific protections if you act within short deadlines.¹

How a Creditor Obtains the Writ

Three parties sit on every garnishment: the creditor who is owed money, the debtor who owes it, and the garnishee, which is the bank, employer, or other third party holding the debtor’s assets. Florida Statute 77.01 lets any person with a money judgment pursue a writ against debts owed to the defendant by a third party, or against the defendant’s personal property in that third party’s hands.¹

The usual sequence starts after the creditor has already sued and won. The creditor files a motion stating the judgment amount, the court issues the writ, and the writ is served on the garnishee.² The garnishee then has 20 days to file a written answer disclosing whether it holds the debtor’s money or property, how much, and whether it knows of anyone else who does.³

Florida does allow garnishment before a judgment is entered, but only in narrow circumstances: the creditor must file a sworn statement and post a bond worth at least twice the claimed debt, and pre-judgment garnishment is not available in tort cases like personal injury or property damage.⁴ If you have not been sued yet, most writs you encounter will still be post-judgment.

What Happens to Your Wages

When the target is your paycheck, the court issues a continuing writ of garnishment to your employer. Your employer withholds a portion of each paycheck and sends it to the creditor until the judgment is paid or the court orders otherwise. Florida waives sovereign immunity for this, so state and local government employers can be garnished too.⁵

Federal law caps the bite. For ordinary debts (not child support, taxes, or student loans), the maximum any creditor can take is the smaller of these two figures:

25% of your disposable earnings for that pay period, or
the amount by which your disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage, which works out to $217.50 per week at the current $7.25 hourly rate.⁶

If you earn $300 per week in disposable pay, 25% is $75, while $300 minus $217.50 is $82.50. The smaller number wins, so the cap is $75. Earn less than $217.50 a week and nothing can be garnished at all. Disposable earnings means your pay after legally required deductions like federal, state, and local taxes, Social Security, and Medicare. Voluntary deductions for health insurance, retirement, or union dues do not reduce the garnishable amount.⁷

What Happens to Your Bank Account

A bank garnishment hits harder and faster than a wage garnishment. When your bank receives the writ, it freezes the funds in your account up to the full judgment amount. The freeze is immediate. It happens even if the account contains money that is legally exempt, such as Social Security deposits or protected wages, because the bank does not sort out what is protected and what is not. That job falls to you, and the clock starts right away.

There is one automatic exception. For accounts receiving federal benefit payments by direct deposit, federal regulation requires the bank to look back at the prior two months of deposits before freezing everything. If it finds direct-deposited federal benefits during that window, it must keep an amount equal to those deposits available to you.⁸ This automatic review only applies to direct-deposited federal benefits. It does not cover checks you deposited by hand, and it does not protect other kinds of exempt funds.

Exemptions That Can Protect Your Money

Florida gives you several exemptions, but none of them stops a garnishment on its own. You have to claim them. Here is what qualifies.

Head of Household Wage Protection

Florida’s strongest shield is the head-of-household exemption under Florida Statute 222.11. You qualify if you provide more than half the financial support for a child or other dependent. If your disposable earnings are $750 per week or less, your wages are completely exempt and a creditor cannot garnish a single dollar.⁹

If your disposable earnings exceed $750 per week, the amount above that line still cannot be garnished unless you have signed a specific written waiver. Florida law sets detailed form requirements for the waiver: it must be in the same language as the underlying contract, appear in a separate attached document, carry a prescribed notice in at least 14-point type, and be signed by both you and the creditor.⁹ Even with a valid waiver, the garnishment cannot exceed the federal 25% cap. If you are not a head of household, the federal CCPA limits still apply, but you do not get the additional Florida protection.

Protected Federal Benefits

Several federal benefits are protected from garnishment by private creditors, including Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, veterans’ benefits, federal retirement and disability benefits, military pay and survivor benefits, and federal student aid.⁸

The protection has limits. Federal law permits garnishment of Social Security for child support, alimony, restitution, overdue federal taxes (up to 15% per payment), and delinquent debts owed to other federal agencies.¹⁰ The shield applies specifically to collection by private creditors on ordinary consumer debts.

The Tracing Rule for Deposited Wages

Exempt wages do not lose their protection the moment they land in your bank account. Under Florida Statute 222.11(3), head-of-household earnings deposited in a financial institution remain exempt for six months after the bank receives them, as long as the funds can be traced and identified as earnings. Mixing exempt earnings with other money in the same account does not by itself destroy your ability to trace them.⁹ This is a separate protection from the two-month federal-benefits review done by the bank, and the two work independently.

How to Claim an Exemption Before You Lose It

None of the exemptions above helps you unless you claim them in writing on time. When a writ is issued against an individual, the clerk of court attaches a Notice to Defendant along with a Claim of Exemption and Request for Hearing form. The notice lists the main exemptions available under Florida and federal law.¹¹

You must fill out the Claim of Exemption form, have it notarized, and file it with the clerk within 20 days of receiving the notice. You also have to send a copy to the creditor (or their attorney) and to the garnishee. Miss the 20-day deadline and you can lose the right to recover funds that were otherwise protected.¹¹ If the creditor does not object to your claim, the court can dissolve the writ without a hearing. If the creditor contests it, the court will set a hearing where you will need evidence: bank statements showing the source of the funds, pay stubs showing your income, documentation of the dependents you support.

Protection From Being Fired Over the Garnishment

Federal law bars your employer from firing you because your wages are being garnished for any single debt.¹² The shield covers one garnishment. If garnishments stack up from two or more separate debts, the federal protection no longer applies. Employers who violate the rule face fines and potential criminal liability.

Stopping Garnishment Through Bankruptcy

Filing for bankruptcy triggers an automatic stay that immediately halts most collection actions, including active wage garnishments. The stay takes effect the moment the petition is filed, with no hearing or prior court approval required.¹³ Once the employer gets notice of the filing, the withholding stops.

The stay is not absolute. Garnishments for domestic support obligations such as child support and alimony can continue even during bankruptcy.¹³ Bankruptcy also does not automatically erase the underlying debt. That depends on which chapter you file and whether the debt is dischargeable. For someone facing multiple garnishments or debt they cannot realistically pay, it may still be the only way to stop the loss of income.

How Long You Remain at Risk

A creditor does not have unlimited time to pursue a writ, but the window is long. In Florida, a money judgment stays enforceable for 20 years from the date it was entered.¹⁴ A judgment lien on real property runs for an initial 10 years and can be renewed for another 10 by re-recording a certified copy before the first lien expires.¹⁵ An old unpaid judgment can produce a fresh writ of garnishment years later, and the exposure does not fully end until the 20-year period has run.

1
Florida Legislature. Florida Code 77.01 – Right to Writ of Garnishment
2
Florida Senate. Florida Code 77.03 – Issuance of Writ After Judgment
3
Florida Legislature. Florida Code 77.04 – Writ Form
4
Florida Legislature. Florida Code 77.031 – Issuance of Writ Before Judgment
5
Florida Legislature. Florida Code 77.0305 – Continuing Writ of Garnishment Against Salary or Wages
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1673 – Restriction on Garnishment
7
U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet #30 – Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act
8
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Can a Debt Collector Take My Federal Benefits, Like Social Security or VA Payments?
9
FindLaw. Florida Code 222.11 – Exemption of Wages from Garnishment
10
Social Security Administration. Can My Social Security Benefits Be Garnished or Levied
11
Florida Senate. Florida Code 77.041 – Notice to Defendant
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1674 – Restriction on Discharge from Employment by Reason of Garnishment
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
14
Florida Senate. Florida Code 55.081 – Statute of Limitations Lien of Judgment
15
Florida Legislature. Florida Code 55.10 – Recording of Judgment Lien