Louisiana garnishment: a bank seizure catches only what is there that day, and a wage garnishment dies at 180 days

Louisiana's garnishment article contains two rules that cut in opposite directions, and knowing which one applies to you is the whole game.

If it is not wages, the garnishment is not continuing. The garnishee answers only as to what it held the day the interrogatories were served. Money arriving the next week is not caught.

If it is wages, the seizure continues — but it dies automatically if the creditor fails to obtain a garnishment judgment within 180 days of the answers being filed.

The writ

La. C.C.P. art. 2291:

A judgment for the payment of money may be executed by a writ of fieri facias directing the seizure and sale of property of the judgment debtor.

Louisiana keeps the civil-law name. The writ of fieri facias is the instrument, and it directs seizure and sale.

Garnishment is built on top of it — art. 2411 opens "after the issuance of a writ of fieri facias", so the writ comes first.

Citing a garnishee

Art. 2411(A):

The judgment creditor, by petition and after the issuance of a writ of fieri facias, may cause a third person to be cited as a garnishee to declare under oath what property he has in his possession or under his control belonging to the judgment debtor and in what amount he is indebted to him, even though the debt may not be due. He may require the third person to answer categorically and under oath the interrogatories annexed to the petition within the delay provided by Article 2412.

That the garnishee must answer as to debts "even though the debt may not be due" is worth noting. A contract payment not yet payable is still within the declaration.

Art. 2411(B)(1): the seizure "shall take effect upon service of the petition, citation, interrogatories, and a notice of seizure". All four documents, on the garnishee.

What a bank garnishment actually catches

Art. 2411(C):

Other than as provided in R.S.13:3921 et seq. applicable to garnishments of wages, a garnishment shall not be continuing in nature and the garnishee need only respond as to property of the judgment debtor that the garnishee has in his possession or under his control at the time the garnishment interrogatories are served on him.

This is the opposite of the rule in states like Pennsylvania, where service creates a continuing attachment that keeps catching money as it arrives.

In Louisiana a non-wage garnishment is a snapshot. It catches the balance on the day of service and nothing more. A creditor who wants what comes in later must garnish again.

Art. 2411(D) adds a protection for banks, and indirectly for you:

Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, when the garnishee is a bank, savings and loan association, or credit union, the garnishee may continue to pay checks and drafts drawn on the judgment debtor's deposit accounts maintained with the garnishee that are presented for payment in the ordinary course of business on the day garnishment interrogatories are served upon the garnishee or on the next business day thereafter, without incurring any liability or obligation in favor of the judgment creditor or any other third party.

Checks already in flight clear. A bank may honor items presented on the day of service and the next business day without liability, so an automatic payment made that morning is not clawed back.

The 180-day cliff on wage garnishments

Art. 2411(B)(2):

For wage garnishments subject to the provisions of R.S.13:3921 et seq., if the garnishee or judgment debtor files no opposition to the garnishment proceedings, and the garnishee answers the garnishment interrogatories affirmatively as to the employment of the judgment debtor by the garnishee, and the garnisher fails to obtain a garnishment judgment within one hundred eighty days of the filing of the answers to the interrogatories, all effects of the seizure by garnishment shall automatically cease upon the lapse of the one hundred eightieth day, and the garnisher shall be required to re-serve the garnishee pursuant to R.S.13:3923 and 3924.

The mechanism is worth understanding precisely, because the trigger is a creditor's inaction.

Where nobody opposes and the employer confirms you work there, the creditor still has to go back and take a garnishment judgment. Many do it promptly. A creditor that lets the matter sit loses the seizure outright at the 180th day — not merely the right to proceed, but "all effects of the seizure."

So the date to diary is 180 days from the filing of the answers to the interrogatories, not from service.

Note the second condition. The cliff applies where no opposition is filed. Filing an opposition takes you out of this paragraph, so it is a choice: contest now, or say nothing and watch a stalled garnishment expire.

Service, and the notice you may not get

Art. 2412(A)(1) requires the sheriff to serve the garnishee with the citation, the petition, the interrogatories and "a notice that a seizure is thereby effected".

Art. 2412(A)(2) deals with your notice, and is blunt about its weight:

The judgment creditor shall send to the judgment debtor written notice of the filing of the garnishment petition by mail or electronic means. However, the notice provided to the judgment debtor shall have no effect on the validity of the seizure.

The creditor must send it, by mail or electronically. But a failure to send it does not invalidate the seizure. The remedy for missing notice, if any, lies elsewhere — not in undoing what has already been seized.

Art. 2412(D) sets the garnishee's deadline:

The garnishee shall file his sworn answers to the interrogatories within thirty days from the date of service made pursuant to this Article.

Thirty days — and that filing starts the 180-day clock above.

Art. 2412(C) requires personal service where the garnishee is an individual, and lets the court order another method where the garnishee "has concealed or absented himself with the purpose of avoiding personal service."

Art. 2412(B) routes garnishments against executive-branch state employees to the office of statewide uniform payroll or, for others, to the secretary of the employing department or a designee.

Where this connects

If the judgment came by default, Louisiana's 2022 overhaul made it a one-step process with seven days' notice. See Louisiana default judgments after the 2022 overhaul.

For the case itself, Louisiana uses exceptions rather than motions to dismiss — see Louisiana exceptions, where two are waived if not raised — and Louisiana summary judgment, which must be heard sixty-five days before trial.

Louisiana routes every discovery dispute, including those involving non-parties, to one court. See the Louisiana motion to compel.

How Louisiana compares

A short checklist

1. Work out whether it is wages or not. The two paragraphs of art. 2411 point in opposite directions.
2. For a bank garnishment, the balance on the day of service is what was caught. Later deposits are not.
3. Check whether items presented that day cleared. Art. 2411(D) permits it.
4. For wages, find the date the garnishee's answers were filed and count 180 days.
5. Decide deliberately whether to oppose. The 180-day cliff only operates where no opposition is filed.
6. Do not rely on the creditor's notice. It is required, but its absence does not undo the seizure.
7. Check that the garnishee answered within thirty days, and whether an individual garnishee was served personally.

Where these rules live

• La. C.C.P. art. 2291 — Money Judgment; Fieri Facias
• La. C.C.P. art. 2411 — Garnishee; Effect of Service; Financial Institutions
• La. C.C.P. art. 2412 — Method of Service; Delay For Answering
• La. C.C.P. art. 2002 — Annulment For Vices of Form; Time For Action

This page explains what the articles say. It isn't legal advice, and which wages and property are exempt is governed by statutes this site doesn't cover.