Enforcing an Alaska money judgment: the Permanent Fund Dividend, and the 30-day rule that hands the money back

Two features of Alaska Rule 69 have no equivalent anywhere else. One is a whole category of asset — the Permanent Fund Dividend — with its own writ rules. The other is a provision that gives seized money back to the debtor when the creditor's paperwork is late.

Thirty days, or the money goes back

Rule 69(g)(5)(C) is the provision every judgment creditor in Alaska should have in a diary:

If, within 30 days after the court receives money seized by writ of execution, the creditor neither files proof of service as required by subparagraph (A) above nor requests a release of funds under subparagraph (B), the court may release all monies seized to the debtor without further order of the court or notice to the creditor. If money is released to the debtor under this paragraph, the cost of service of the writ of execution shall not be assessed against the debtor.

No motion by the debtor, no order, no notice to the creditor. The money that was successfully seized goes back, and the creditor cannot even charge the debtor for the service costs.

What has to be filed within those thirty days is proof that the debtor was served with the statutory notices — Rule 69(g)(5)(A). Where the debtor cannot be found, Rule 69(g)(5)(B) provides the alternative:

If the creditor is unable to serve the notice, the creditor may file a request for release of funds and an affidavit of diligent inquiry explaining the efforts the creditor has made to effect service. The efforts must include service by certified mail and a mailing by first-class mail to the debtor's last known address. The affidavit must describe the efforts made to locate the debtor.

Certified mail and first-class mail to the last known address, at minimum, plus a description of the search. Only then may the court release the funds to the creditor.

What has to be served, and when

Rule 69(g)(1) points at the exemption statutes and sets a tight window for one of them:

The judgment creditor must serve on the judgment debtor the documents that AS 09.38.065(c), AS 09.38.075(b), AS 09.38.080(c), and AS 09.38.085 require to be served on the judgment debtor. If service is being made under AS 09.38.080, the documents must be served on the debtor before, at the time of, or within three days after levy.

Three days after levy at the outside. And the papers are not free-form:

The judgment creditor must use forms authorized by the administrative director for the papers required to be served on the judgment debtor, including the creditor's affidavit, the notices, the claim of exemption form, and the judgment debtor booklet.

The claim of exemption form and the judgment debtor booklet travel with the notice. Alaska builds the debtor's route to claiming an exemption into the creditor's own service package. How other states handle that claim is compared in claiming an exemption from garnishment.

One relief for repeat levies, in Rule 69(g)(4): no additional notice is required for a subsequent levy where "the creditor's affidavit previously served on the debtor describes the property seized by the subsequent levy and a notice was served on the debtor within the past 45 days."

One writ at a time — with a dividend exception

Rule 69(e)(1) is a limit most states do not impose:

Only one original general writ of execution and one original writ of execution for garnishment of earnings may be issued and outstanding at any one time except: (A) an additional writ of execution may be issued while another is outstanding if either of the writs is to be served on the Department of Revenue to seize the debtor's Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend; only one writ can be levied against a debtor's Permanent Fund Dividend for each debt; or (B) additional writs may be issued if the creditor alleges facts by affidavit that show (1) there is property which cannot be served by the process server holding an outstanding writ because the property is outside the community in which the process server is authorized to operate, and (2) there is good cause to believe the debtor may remove or dispose of the property unless immediate action is taken.

Exception (B) reflects Alaska's geography. A process server authorized in one community cannot simply pass the writ along; Rule 69(e)(2) says so expressly — "no writ or copies may be transferred to another process server except within the same firm" — and requires the outstanding writ to be returned so the clerk can cancel it and issue a new one to a server covering the other community.

The Permanent Fund Dividend

Rule 69(i) gives the dividend its own machinery:

When an Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend is levied upon to satisfy a judgment, the Department of Revenue may deliver the seized funds directly to the court instead of turning them over to the process server who served the writ. The Department of Revenue will notify the process server of the amount seized. Based on this information, the process server shall prepare and file a return of service. The court shall disburse the funds as provided by law.

The money goes straight to the court. The process server files a return based on what the Department reports rather than on what it received.

Rule 69(i)(2) then authorizes an electronic route for public-agency judgments — criminal, minor offense and alcohol underage cases, and other judgments in favor of the state — including "issuance of writs of execution in electronic format, service of writs and notices of levy by electronic means, return of service, deposit of funds seized and other execution procedures."

And Rule 69(i)(3) removes a protection for that route: "The automatic stays listed in District Court Civil Rule 20 (a), District Court Civil Rule 24 (a), and Civil Rule 62 (a) do not apply to writs issued to government agencies for execution on the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend under (i)(2) of this rule."

Rule 69(j) allows something similar against bank accounts: procedures for municipalities or the state "to execute on judgments in criminal, minor offense, and alcohol underage cases by conducting bank sweeps on multiple debtors using a single writ of execution."

Finding the assets

Rule 69(a) opens post-judgment discovery to the creditor — "the judgment creditor or a successor in interest, when that interest appears of record, may obtain discovery from any person, including the judgment debtor, in the manner provided in these rules." If those answers do not arrive, the Alaska motion to compel applies after judgment as before it.

Rule 69(b)(1) is the older, more direct tool:

Before or after the issuing of an execution against property, the judgment debtor may be made to appear before the court, or before a master appointed by such court, at a time and place specified by an order, and to answer under oath all questions concerning property the judgment debtor has which may be subject to execution. The court may also order the debtor to bring to the examination documents concerning property that may be subject to execution.

The examination can produce an order on the spot. Under Rule 69(b)(2), if it appears the debtor has property liable to execution, "the court shall make an order requiring the judgment debtor to apply the same in satisfaction of the judgment, or that such property be levied on by execution, or both, as may seem most likely to effect the object of the proceeding."

And Rule 69(c) supplies the freeze:

At the time of allowing the order prescribed in subsection (b)(1) of this rule or at any time thereafter pending the proceeding, the court may make an order restraining the judgment debtor from selling, transferring, or in any manner disposing of any property liable to execution pending the proceeding. For disobeying any order or requirement authorized by this rule the judgment debtor may be punished as for a contempt.

Waiting five years costs you the writ

Rule 69(d) blocks a dormant judgment:

Whenever any period of five years shall elapse without a writ of execution being outstanding on a judgment, no writ of execution may be issued unless the court finds that there are just and sufficient reasons for the judgment creditor's failure to obtain a writ within that five-year period.

Getting the writ back requires a motion and affidavit stating "the names of the parties to the judgment, the date of its entry, the reasons for failure to obtain a writ for a period of five years and the amount claimed to be due," a summons served on the debtor under Rule 4, and then:

The judgment debtor may file and serve a response to such motion within 20 days, alleging any defense to such motion that may exist. The judgment creditor may file and serve a reply to such response. The judgment debtor waives all defenses and objections that the judgment debtor does not present in the response as herein provided.

Twenty days, and everything not raised is waived. For a debtor this is the moment to raise payment, satisfaction or any other defense — there is not another one.

The creditor may also attach in the meantime: under Rule 69(d)(5), property may be attached and held while the motion is pending, and "for the purpose of such attachment the judgment shall be deemed an implied contract for the direct payment of money."

Selling real property: ten days to object

Rule 69(h)(1) gives the debtor a short window:

Where real property has been sold on execution the plaintiff in the writ of execution, on motion, is entitled to have an order confirming the sale, after the expiration of 10 days after the filing of the return of sale, unless the judgment debtor has filed objections to the sale within 10 days after the filing of the return of sale.

The test on objection is narrow — whether "there were substantial irregularities in the proceedings of sale which caused probable loss or injury to the judgment debtor." If there were not, confirmation follows. If there were, the court denies the motion and orders a resale.

After confirmation the clerk applies the proceeds to the judgment and costs, and "[a]ny proceeds remaining shall be paid to the judgment debtor" — which can happen sooner if the debtor files a waiver of all objections.

Money the process server collects

Rule 69(f)(2) sets a next-day rule: a process server who receives money on a levy "must deliver the money and a return of service to the court on the next day of business after receipt," and must return the original writ when the judgment is satisfied, when no further seizure is expected, or "within 30 days after receiving a notice of termination of the writ from the court."

A short checklist

If you hold the judgment:

1. Diary 30 days from the day the court receives seized money, and file proof of service inside it.
2. If the debtor cannot be found, file the diligent-inquiry affidavit — certified mail and first-class mail at minimum.
3. Serve within three days of levy where AS 09.38.080 applies.
4. Use the authorized forms, including the claim of exemption form and the debtor booklet.
5. Remember the one-writ rule, and that the Permanent Fund Dividend is the exception — once per debt.
6. Return an outstanding writ to the clerk before pursuing property in another community.
7. Do not let five years pass without a writ outstanding.

If the judgment is against you:

1. Check whether proof of service was filed. If not, the money may come back automatically.
2. Use the claim of exemption form you were served with; the deadlines are in the AS 09.38 notices.
3. Object within 10 days of the return of sale if real property was sold, and answer a five-year revival motion within 20 days — everything not raised there is waived.

Where these rules live

• Alaska R. Civ. P. 4 — Process
• Alaska R. Civ. P. 62 — Stay of Proceedings to Enforce a Judgment
• Alaska R. Civ. P. 69 — Execution
• Claiming an exemption from garnishment
• Alaska motion to compel discovery
• Alaska costs and attorney's fees

This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice, and the AS 09.38 exemption statutes these rules operate on — which set the amounts a debtor may protect — are statutes this site doesn't carry.