How long must you wait after a garnishment to get the Court's blessing? There's a formula for that!

How long must you wait after a garnishment to get the Court's blessing? There's a formula for that!

The greater of:

1. Answer date + 20

2. If Writ Date - Garnishee service date < 7, then Writ date + 28 days; else Writ date + 20 days

Or, just do 30 days from last garnishee answer and save the judge the headache.

Not all forms wear capes

As a reminder, the basic process on a writ of garnishment in Washington State is that the court issues a writ of garnishment. It is sent to the garnishee, a bank or an employer, at which point the garnishee must answer to describe the amount of money that is going to be withheld pursuant to the writ. A debtor has an opportunity to claim exemptions, indicating that some money that might otherwise be subject to the writ should not be subject to the writ for certain reasons. This is on a mandatory form. The answer of the garnishee can be contested by the creditor or the debtor. Before the garnishee will send funds to the judgment creditor, the court effectively signs off on the process through an order called a judgment on answer of garnishee. We call this last step "finalization." Commonly, it'll just be called the JOA for those that deal with it a lot.

To submit it to the Court there must have been time for the debtor to controvert the answer and to claim exemptions, but both have different deadlines and basis for the deadlines.

1. Controverting an answer is simply: 20 days after garnishee answer (but remember that in an employment context there are two answers). See RCW 6.27.210.

2. Claiming an exemption is governed by RCW 6.27.160, but it is poorly drafted. It allows for it to be done within 27 days after the "date stated on the writ" OR 21 days after service of the writ on the garnishee IF service on the garnishee is delayed by more than 7 days after the "date of the writ."

Why is that poorly written? It sets up a deadline for a debtor based on when a garnishee is served. How does the debtor know? The statute uses the phrase "date stated on the writ" in one part of a sentence and "the date of the writ" on another. A writ of garnishment often has several dates on it. It will have a date that interests is calculated to, it will have a date the attorney signed it, it will have a date that the court clerk signed it, it MIGHT have a file stamp date on it.

tl;dr: wait 30 days from last garnishee answer.