Question 1

How much of a paycheck can a Missouri writ of garnishment actually reach?

Accepted Answer

Section 525.030.2(1) of the Revised Statutes of Missouri gives you the smallest of three figures, measured on aggregate earnings for the workweek after the deduction of amounts required by law to be withheld: twenty-five percentum, or the amount by which those earnings exceed thirty times the federal minimum hourly wage prescribed by section 6(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 in effect when the earnings are payable, or ten percentum if the employee is the head of a family and a resident of this state. Both conditions have to hold for the ten percentum prong, and when they do it controls, because ten is always less than twenty-five. The first two prongs are the federal floor restated in Missouri's code, so do not describe twenty-five percentum to an employer as a Missouri rule and do not calculate on it where the debtor has a family here. For pay periods longer than a week, subsection 2(3) applies the percentage prongs to all workweeks compensated and computes the minimum-wage multiple as the number of workweeks times 30 times the applicable federal minimum wage, fixing a calendar month at 4 1/3 workweeks and a semimonthly period at 2 1/6 weeks.

Question 2

How does a judgment creditor get a writ of garnishment issued in Missouri?

Accepted Answer

You file the statewide Garnishment Application and Order, form CV92, with the clerk of the court that entered the judgment, and the clerk completes and seals the writ on the lower half of the same sheet. The form is captioned for the judicial circuit and county, the writ block is addressed to the sheriff of any county in the state, and the issuing line reads Issued By (Clerk), so there is no judge's signature to chase and no separate enforcement docket. On the application you name the garnishee and its service address, give the last four digits of the debtor's taxpayer identification number, tick what you are reaching from Bank Account, Bond, Wages or Other, pick the return or end date, and total the judgment balance, post-judgment interest, post-judgment costs, the service fee and the $10 garnishment clerk fee, less credits. Interrogatories go out with the writ rather than afterwards, on statewide form CV110.

Question 3

How long does a Missouri writ of garnishment keep capturing pay, and what ends it?

Accepted Answer

That is your choice at filing. Form CV92 offers a Requested Return/End Date of 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 or 180 days, or Continuous, and Missouri allows the continuous option for earnings only. A dated writ reaches what the garnishee holds or owes between service and its return date, and then it is spent. A continuous wage garnishment needs no renewal: under Section 525.040.1 it keeps attaching until the judgment is paid in full or until the employment relationship is terminated, whichever occurs first. The duty that ends it early is yours. A continuous garnishment requires the garnishor to file a statement of judgment balance with the issuing court showing payments received in the preceding six months and the unsatisfied remainder, no later than 15 days after the close of each six-month period, with copies mailed to the garnishee and the debtor, and if you fail to file it the court shall terminate the garnishment. The outer wall is the judgment: Section 516.350.1 presumes a judgment paid ten years after rendition, ten years after revival on personal service, or ten years after the last payment duly entered on the record, after which no execution, order or process shall issue on it.

Question 4

How much does it cost to issue and serve a Missouri writ of garnishment?

Accepted Answer

Two separate payees. The clerk's charge is the $10.00 Garnishment Clerk Fee Surcharge pre-printed as a line item on form CV92, which you add into the amount you are collecting rather than absorb. The sheriff is paid separately and before service: Section 57.280.1 sets twenty dollars for each item to be served, with a return indicating service, a non est return or a nulla bona return, and Section 57.280.4(1) adds twenty dollars on top in any county of the first, second or fourth classification or with a charter form of government, or fifteen dollars in a county of the third classification, with mileage at the rate the Internal Revenue Service prescribes. Section 488.435 restates the same figures. Both sections carry an effective date of August 28, 2025, so older sheriff figures are stale. Individual Missouri counties publish higher all-in service totals than the statutory minimum, so confirm the figure with the sheriff of the county where the garnishee will actually be served before you send a check.

Question 5

When must a Missouri garnishee answer the interrogatories and hand over the money?

Accepted Answer

The answer deadline runs from the return date, not from service. Form CV110 instructs the garnishee to answer under oath during the ten days immediately after the return date of the writ, or, where the garnishment is continuous, within 20 days from the date it was served, and to mail the original to the garnishor and file a certificate of service. Payment runs on its own clock. Rule 90.10(a), which form CV92 reproduces in full, provides that where the garnishee admits in its answers that property subject to garnishment is in its possession, it pays or delivers that property into court or to the attorney for the party who obtained the order without any further order of the court, no later than ten days after the return date, or, on a continuous wage garnishment, no later than ten days after the end of each pay period subject to the garnishment. Interrogatory 3 also obliges the garnishee to tell you if the debtor's employment ends.

Question 6

If another creditor is already garnishing the same wages, where does a Missouri writ stand in line?

Accepted Answer

Section 525.040.2 breaks the tie on service, not on judgment date: writs of garnishment that would otherwise have equal priority take priority according to the date of service on the garnishee. Missouri then does something useful for a junior creditor. Where the employee's wages have been attached by more than one writ, the employer must inform the inferior garnisher of the existence and case number of all senior garnishments, and statewide form CV110 turns that into interrogatory 5, which asks the garnishee under oath to list the case number of every senior garnishment. So you do not have to guess where you sit in the queue or pull the docket to find out. Support orders are not ranked against ordinary writs at all; Section 525.030.2(2) lifts them out of the subsection 2 restrictions.

Question 7

What happens if a Missouri garnishee ignores the writ and never answers?

Accepted Answer

Section 525.140 gives you two routes. In default of the answer the plaintiff may take judgment by default against the garnishee, or the court may on motion compel the answer by attachment of the garnishee's body, and where the garnishee is a corporation the court may compel it to answer by attaching the body of its president, secretary, treasurer, auditor, paymaster or deputy paymaster, with the corporation liable for all the costs that attachment runs up. Price the ceiling in before you count on it. Section 525.170 provides that a default judgment may be carried to final judgment as in other civil actions, but no final judgment issues against the garnishee until there is final judgment against the defendant, and in no case for a greater amount than the amount sworn to by the plaintiff with interest and costs, or than the garnishee appears to be liable for to the defendant. Statewide form CV110 cites both Section 525.140 and Rule 90.13, Execution Against Garnishee, as its authority.

Question 8

Can a Missouri writ of garnishment reach a bank account or anything besides wages?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and the statute is broad about it. Section 525.040.1 makes service of the notice of garnishment attach all personal property, money, rights, credits, bonds, bills, notes, drafts, checks and other choses in action of the defendant in the garnishee's possession, charge or control at the time of service, plus whatever comes into its hands or becomes owing between then and the filing of its answer, so a dated bank garnishment is a window rather than a single snapshot. Form CV92 makes you commit on the face of the application by ticking Bank Account, Bond, Wages or Other, and only the earnings category can be made Continuous. Two limits worth knowing: the garnishee is not liable to a money judgment on unconverted bonds, notes, drafts, checks or other choses in action unless they were turned into money since the garnishment or it fails to deliver them up in the time the court prescribes, and where the garnishee is a financial institution Section 525.230 lets it take its one-time twenty dollars, or the fee previously agreed with the depositor, off the top. Public payrolls are fair game: Section 525.310 gives a state, municipal or other political subdivision employer the same duties as a private one, and allows service on the paying, disbursing or auditing officer. The writ also tells the debtor it may file a claim for exemption with the court within 20 days of service, and funds are held while that is decided, so build that window into your timeline.

Missouri Writ of Garnishment

Find out where you stand in Missouri

Introduction

Key Things to Know

Key decisions before you file

Customize your Writ of Garnishment Template with DocDraft

Missouri Requirements for Writ of Garnishment

Ceiling: Ten Percentum for a Head of a Family

The Ceiling Must Be Printed on the Writ

Form CV92 Filed With the Judgment Court's Clerk

Last Four Taxpayer ID Digits, Exactly Right

Return or End Date: 30 to 180 Days, or Continuous

Six-Month Statement of Judgment Balance

Garnishee Answers Ten Days After the Return Date

What It Costs, Including the Fee Shift Against You

Frequently Asked Questions