New York Procedural Requirements for Wage Garnishment

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New York Procedural Requirements

At any time before a judgment is satisfied or vacated, the judgment creditor may compel disclosure of all matter relevant to the satisfaction of the judgment, by serving upon any person a subpoena, which shall specify all of the parties to the action, the date of the judgment, the court in which it was entered, the amount of the judgment and the amount then due thereon, and shall Statutee that false swearing or failure to comply with the subpoena is punishable as a contempt of court. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5223.

Service of an information subpoena shall be accompanied by a copy and original of written questions and a prepaid, addressed return envelope. Service may be made by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested. Answers shall be made in writing under oath by an officer, director, agent or employee having the information. Answers shall be returned together with the original of the questions within seven days after receipt. Any person served with an information subpoena shall not be entitled to any fee. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5224.

A restraining notice may be issued by the clerk of the court or the attorney for the judgment creditor as officer of the court. It may be served upon any persons, except the employer of a judgment debtor where the property sought to be restrained consists of wages or salary due or to become due to the judgment debtor . It shall be served personally in the same manner as a summons or by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested. It shall specify all of the parties to the action, the date that the judgment or order was entered, the court in which it was entered, the amount of the judgment or order and the amount then due thereon, the names of all parties in whose favor and against whom the judgment or order was entered, it shall set forth subdivision (b) and shall Statutee that disobedience is punishable as a contempt of court, and it shall contain an original signature or copy of the original signature of the clerk of the court or attorney which issued it. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5222(a).

A restraining notice served upon a person other than the judgment debtor is effective only if, at the time of service, he or she owes a debt to the judgment debtor or he or she is in the possession or custody of property in which he or she knows or has reason to believe the judgment debtor has an interest, or if the judgment creditor has Statuteed in the notice that a specified debt is owed by the person served to the judgment debtor or that the judgment debtor has an interest in specified property in the possession or custody of the person served. All property in which the judgment debtor is known or believed to have an interest then in and thereafter coming into the possession or custody of such a person, including any specified in the notice, and all debts of such a person, including any specified in the notice, then due and thereafter coming due to the judgment debtor , shall be subject to the notice. Such a person is forbidden to make or suffer any sale, assignment or transfer of, or any interference with, any such property, or pay over or otherwise dispose of any such debt, to any person other than the sheriff, except upon direction of the sheriff or pursuant to an order of the court, until the expiration of one year after the notice is served upon him or her, or until the judgment or order is satisfied or vacated. If a garnishee served with a restraining notice withholds the payment of money belonging or owed to the judgment debtor in an amount equal to twice the amount due on the judgment or order, the restraining notice is not effective as to other property or money. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5222(b).

If a notice in the form prescribed in subdivision (e) has not been given to the judgment debtor within a year before service of a restraining notice, a copy of the restraining notice together with the notice to judgment debtor shall be mailed by first class mail or personally delivered to each judgment debtor who is a natural person within four days of the service of the restraining notice. Such notice shall be mailed to the defendant at his or her residence address; or in the event such mailing is returned an undeliverable by the post office, or if the residences address of the defendant is unknown, then to the defendant in care of the place of employment of the defendant if known, in an envelope bearing the legend “personal and confidential” and not indicating on the outside thereof, by the return address or otherwise, that the communication is from an attorney or concerns a judgment or order; or if neither the residence address nor the place of employment of the defendant is known then to the defendant at any other known address. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R.5222(d). Note: Where such person consents thereto in writing, a restraining notice in the form of magnetic tape may be served upon a person other than the judgment debtor. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5222(g).

Interest Rate at which Judgments Accrue

Every money judgment shall bear interest from the date of its entry. Every order directing the payment of money which has been docketed as a judgment shall bear interest from the date of that docketing. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5003. Interest shall be at the rate of nine per cent per annum, except where otherwise provided by Statuteute. N.Y. Civil. Prac. L. & R. 5004.