Question 1

How does a New York judgment creditor get an income execution issued, and who signs it?

Accepted Answer

You do not apply to a judge. Civil Practice Law and Rules Section 5230(b) provides that at any time before the judgment is satisfied or vacated an execution may be issued from the supreme court, county court or a family court in the county where the judgment was first docketed, by the clerk of the court or the attorney for the judgment creditor as officer of the court, to the sheriffs of one or more counties. You then deliver it to the sheriff of the county where the judgment debtor resides, or where a non-resident is employed. If your judgment came out of some other court, Section 5230(a) requires the execution to state the date a transcript of it was filed with the county clerk, so that filing comes first.

Question 2

How much of a paycheck can a New York income execution actually take?

Accepted Answer

Ten percent of gross income, in practice. Section 5231(b) authorises installments of not more than ten percent of the money the judgment debtor is receiving, and subdivision (g) requires the execution to carry that ten percent of gross figure in capitals on its face. Subdivision (b)(ii) then caps withholding for any week at twenty-five percent of disposable earnings, or the amount by which disposable earnings exceed the weekly floor, whichever is less. Because gross always exceeds disposable, ten percent of gross comes in below twenty-five percent of disposable for an ordinary wage, and the illustration in subdivision (g) states the result as the lesser of twenty-five percent of disposable earnings or ten percent of gross earnings. Do not quote the federal twenty-five percent number to a New York employer: that is a federal protection floor, not a creditor entitlement, and New York legislates below it.

Question 3

Which New York court does the income execution come out of, and what does the paperwork cost?

Accepted Answer

Supreme court, county court or family court of the county where the judgment was first docketed, under Section 5230(b). A judgment entered in the New York City Civil Court or a district, city, town or village court has to be transcripted to the county clerk first, and Section 8021(b)(7) prices that filing at twenty-five dollars in the counties within the City of New York and ten dollars in all other counties. There is no clerk issuance fee when your own attorney signs the execution. What you put up instead goes to the sheriff: twenty dollars to receive the execution and twenty dollars to serve it on the judgment debtor, both in advance under Section 8011(c), and twenty dollars plus twenty dollars again at the levy stage under Section 8011(d).

Question 4

How long before a New York employer has to start withholding on the income execution?

Accepted Answer

Count two twenty-day stretches rather than one. Section 5231(d) requires the sheriff to serve a copy on the judgment debtor within twenty days after the execution is delivered, by personal service in the manner of a summons or by certified mail return receipt requested with a second copy by regular mail. Nothing reaches the employer at that point. Section 5231(e) then has the sheriff levy on the payor only where the debtor fails to pay installments for a period of twenty days, or the sheriff cannot serve the debtor inside the twenty days. Once served, Section 5231(f) obliges the payor to withhold from money then or thereafter due and pay it over to the sheriff, and Section 5231(k) makes the sheriff account and remit at least once every ninety days. A levy on a municipal or public benefit corporation or board of education is effective fifteen days after service.

Question 5

How long does a New York income execution keep capturing pay, and what ends it?

Accepted Answer

It is continuing, so there is no re-serving each payday, and it may issue at any time before the judgment is satisfied or vacated. The job ending is what usually kills it: Section 5231(f) provides that where the money is salary or wages and the employment is terminated by resignation or dismissal after service, the levy is thereafter ineffective and the execution is returned, unless the debtor is reinstated or re-employed within ninety days of the termination. Watch the paper clock as well. Section 5230(c) requires an execution to be returned to the issuing clerk within sixty days of issuance unless it has been served under Section 5231 or Section 5232(a), and your attorney may extend that in writing by not more than sixty additional days.

Question 6

If two income executions reach the same New York employer, which creditor gets paid?

Accepted Answer

Whoever got to the levying officer first, which is not the same as whoever won judgment first. Section 5231(j) provides that two or more income executions against the same judgment debtor naming the same payor are satisfied out of that money in the order in which the executions are delivered to an officer authorised to levy. If a sheriff returns yours unsatisfied because the payor has no office in that county, re-delivering it to the sheriff of a county where the payor does have an office within twenty days of the return preserves your original delivery date. Child support executions sit above all of this: Section 5234(b) gives them priority over any other assignment, levy or process, and Section 5231(b)(iii) limits your execution to the amount by which twenty-five percent of disposable earnings exceeds any support deduction already running.

Question 7

Can a New York creditor freeze wages or a bank account with a restraining notice instead?

Accepted Answer

Not wages. Section 5222(a) lets the clerk or your attorney issue a restraining notice and serve it on any person except the employer of the judgment debtor where the property sought to be restrained is wages or salary, so a paycheck is reachable only through the income execution. A bank account is a different matter, with its own hard limits. A third party restraint runs one year from service, leave of court is needed to serve a second notice on the same person for the same judgment, and Section 5222(c) caps you at two restraining notices per year on a natural person's bank account. Under Section 5222(h) the bank shall not restrain two thousand five hundred dollars where exempt electronic deposits landed in the forty-five days before service, and Section 5222(i) exempts an amount up to the greater of two hundred forty times the federal or the New York State minimum hourly wage, which is $4,080 downstate and $3,840 elsewhere on the 2026 rates. Where the balance is at or below ninety percent of that figure the account is not restrained and the notice is deemed void. Section 5222-a(b)(1) adds a paperwork trap that voids the restraint by itself: the notice must be served on the bank together with a copy of it, an exemption notice and two exemption claim forms with ADDRESS A and ADDRESS B filled in.

Question 8

What happens if a New York employer or bank ignores the papers?

Accepted Answer

Less than a default judgment for the whole debt, so plan for it. Section 5231(f) gives the judgment creditor a proceeding against a payor that fails to pay over, but only for the accrued installments. Against a third party who simply owes the judgment debtor money, Section 5227 lets you commence a special proceeding in which the court may direct that a judgment be entered against that person in your favour. Disobedience of a restraining notice is sharper: Section 5251 makes refusal or willful neglect to obey one punishable as a contempt of court. One upside sits in Section 5252: an employer that discharges, lays off, refuses to promote or disciplines someone because an income execution was served faces a civil penalty of up to five hundred dollars for the first instance and one thousand dollars per instance after that, and the statute directs that the penalty be paid to the creditor.

New York Writ of Garnishment

Find out where you stand in New York

Introduction

Key Things to Know

Key decisions before you file

Customize your Writ of Garnishment Template with DocDraft

New York Requirements for Writ of Garnishment

Name It an Income Execution, Not a Writ

Signed by the Creditor's Attorney, Not a Judge

Judgment Details and the Transcript Date

The Payor Block and the Pay Frequency

Ten Percent of Gross, With a 25 Percent Outer Cap

The Capitalized Face Notice Section 5231(g) Requires

Twenty Days to the Debtor Before the Employer

Sheriff Fees in Advance, Then Five Percent Poundage

Frequently Asked Questions