§3104 Garnishment

Summary

A court may order that property (but not the debtor’s wages) be taken from someone else who is holding it if the rules in section 3101 are met and the person who owes the money has a substantial nonexempt ownership interest. Co-owned property follows the law of the State where the property is located. The court can issue separate garnishment orders to several different holders. A garnishment order keeps running until it ends as described in section 3205(c)(10). Most of the procedures in section 3205 apply, except that wages cannot be taken and any reference to a “judgment debtor” is treated as “debtor.” When the United States asks for a garnishment order, it must say how much it claims and give the date the order is issued. The property taken cannot be worth more than the amount by which the debt plus likely interest and costs exceed the debtor’s nonexempt interests in any property securing the debt and in property already attached, in receivership, or income sequestered under this subchapter.