Ways to Collect Judgments using Bank Garnishment
- In order to perform a bank garnishment, the creditor has to begin by getting a writ of execution from the judge. Take a look at Florida Statute § 55.208. A different writ of execution is needed for every county where a levy is going to be served.
- Once the writ of execution is received, the creditor has to present the original writ of execution to the sheriff’s division for the relevant county.
- Every county’s sheriff’s division has its own methods for bank levies, but the majority permit bank levies to be executed by authorized process servers. In that case, the creditor could effectuate the bank levy by, starting with, serving the original writ of execution to the sheriff’s division, together with directions describing the banking institutions to be seen and second, directing the process server on which banks to serve.
- After that, the process server is going to serve a duplicate of the writ of execution to each of the necessary banks, together with a Notice of Levy and Memorandum of Garnishee. A different Notice of Levy and Memorandum of Garnishee are likewise delivered to the borrower, telling them that the garnishment will take place.
- The bank has to instantly freeze the money in the debtor’s account (as much as the full dollar amount of the judgment) as soon as they get the levy documents.
- Within 10 days of the bank receiving the Notice of Levy, they have to complete the Memorandum of Garnishee (showing the amount of money was taken) and send it back to the sheriff. Next, the sheriff will notify the creditor regarding the amount of money received, if any.
- Lastly, the bank sends the money to the sheriff, who will then send the creditor the money.