Your New York bank account is frozen: the exemption claim form, and the 20 days you have to send it

New York procedure · Last verified August 17, 2026

A frozen account is the fastest-moving problem in New York debt collection, and the CPLR gives the person whose account it is more protection than almost any other state. Two amounts come out automatically, before anybody files anything. A creditor who skipped a step has served a notice that is void by its own terms. And the claim procedure runs on a short chain of deadlines — 20 days, then 8, then 7 — that decides whether the money comes back in a fortnight or not at all.

Two amounts that are protected without a claim

Before the claim form matters at all, check whether the account should have been frozen in the first place.

CPLR 5222(h) protects $2,500 where exempt payments arrive electronically:

Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (b) of this section, if direct deposit or electronic payments reasonably identifiable as statutorily exempt payments as defined in paragraph two of subdivision (l) of section fifty-two hundred five of this article were made to the judgment debtor's account during the forty-five day period preceding the date that the restraining notice was served on the banking institution, then the banking institution shall not restrain two thousand five hundred dollars in the judgment debtor's account. If the account contains an amount equal to or less than two thousand five hundred dollars, the account shall not be restrained and the restraining notice shall be deemed void.

CPLR 5222(i) protects a wage-based floor in every account:

A restraining notice issued pursuant to this section shall not apply to an amount equal to or less than the greater of two hundred forty times the federal minimum hourly wage prescribed in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 or two hundred forty times the state minimum hourly wage prescribed in section six hundred fifty-two of the labor law as in effect at the time the earnings are payable (as published on the websites of the United States department of labor and the state department of labor) except such part thereof as a court determines to be unnecessary for the reasonable requirements of the judgment debtor and his or her dependents.

Two things about that second one. It is a formula, not a figure — 240 multiplied by whichever minimum wage is higher, so the protected amount moves whenever the minimum wage does. The rule itself records the historical anchors ("seventeen hundred sixteen dollars on the effective date of this subdivision, and shall rise to seventeen hundred forty dollars on July twenty-fourth, two thousand nine, and shall rise thereafter in tandem with the minimum wage"), which tells you the number in the rule is not the number today. Do the multiplication against the current rate.

The $2,500 in subdivision (h) moves too. CPLR 5205(l)(3) adjusts it every three years:

Beginning on April first, two thousand twelve, and at each three-year interval ending on April first thereafter, the dollar amount of the exemption provided in this section ... shall be adjusted as provided in subparagraph (ii) of this paragraph. ... The superintendent of financial services shall determine the amount of the adjustment based on the change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-CT-PA, published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the most recent three-year period ending on December thirty-first.

So both automatic protections are published figures that change on a schedule. Look up the current ones; do not take a number off a web page written three years ago.

What "statutorily exempt payments" means

CPLR 5205(l)(2) defines the category that triggers the $2,500 protection, and the list is broad:

For purposes of this article, "statutorily exempt payments" means any personal property exempt from application to the satisfaction of a money judgment under any provision of state or federal law. Such term shall include, but not be limited to, payments from any of the following sources: social security, including retirement, survivors' and disability benefits, supplemental security income or child support payments; veterans administration benefits; public assistance; workers' compensation; unemployment insurance; public or private pensions; railroad retirement; black lung benefits; and emergency relief funds.

Note the words "include, but not be limited to." The list is illustrative, and the definition itself reaches any property exempt under any state or federal law.

The step creditors skip, and what it costs them

CPLR 5222-a(b)(1) requires a specific package to go to the bank:

The person issuing the restraining notice pursuant to subdivision (a) of section fifty-two hundred twenty-two of this article shall provide the banking institution with the restraining notice, a copy of the restraining notice, an exemption notice and two exemption claim forms with sections titled "ADDRESS A" and "ADDRESS B" completed. ... Failure to serve the notice and forms together with the restraining notice renders the restraining notice void, and the banking institution shall not restrain the account.

Void — not voidable, not curable by sending the forms later. The same paragraph does the same work for a sheriff's levy under CPLR 5232: "Failure to serve the notice and forms renders the execution void, and the banking institution shall not levy upon the account."

The bank then has its own deadline, in CPLR 5222-a(b)(3):

Within two business days after receipt of the restraining notice or execution, exemption notice and exemption claim forms, the banking institution shall serve upon the judgment debtor the copy of the restraining notice, the exemption notice and two exemption claim forms. The banking institution shall serve the notice and forms by first class mail to the last known address of the judgment debtor.

If nothing arrived in the post, that is worth raising: the package the bank was required to send is the package the whole procedure runs on.

Where CPLR 5222-a does not apply, CPLR 5222(d) still requires notice within days:

if a notice in the form prescribed in subdivision (e) of this section has not been given to the judgment debtor or obligor within a year before service of a restraining notice, a copy of the restraining notice together with the notice to judgment debtor or obligor shall be mailed by first class mail or personally delivered to each judgment debtor or obligor who is a natural person within four days of the service of the restraining notice.

Twenty days to send the form

CPLR 5222-a(c)(1) is the deadline that matters most:

To claim an exemption pursuant to the procedures in this section, the judgment debtor shall complete the exemption claim forms, sign them under penalty of perjury, and serve them within twenty days of the date postmarked on the correspondence containing the notice and forms. The judgment debtor shall serve one completed exemption claim form on the banking institution and the other on the attorney for the judgment creditor. In the event that there is no attorney for the judgment creditor, then the exemption claim form must be served directly on the judgment creditor. The judgment debtor may serve the exemption claim forms in person or by first-class mail.

Twenty days from the postmark, not from when you opened the envelope. Both copies go out — one to the bank, one to the creditor's lawyer. There is no filing fee and no court appearance in this step.

Missing the twenty days is bad but not fatal. CPLR 5222-a(c)(5):

If no claim of exemption is received by the banking institution within twenty-five days after the notice and forms are mailed to the judgment debtor, the funds remain subject to the restraining notice or execution. Failure of the judgment debtor to deliver the executed exemption claim form does not constitute a waiver of any right to an exemption.

The money stays frozen, but the exemption itself survives and can still be asserted — including through the motion practice CPLR 5240 allows.

Eight days, then the money comes back

CPLR 5222-a(c)(3) puts the release on a clock:

The banking institution shall release all funds in the judgment debtor's account eight days after the date postmarked on the envelope containing the executed exemption claim form mailed to the banking institution or the date of personal delivery of the executed exemption claim form to the banking institution, and the restraint shall be deemed void, except where the judgment creditor interposes an objection to the exemption within that time.

And CPLR 5222-a(c)(4) puts a faster obligation on the creditor if you send proof:

Where the executed exemption claim form sent to the judgment creditor is accompanied by information demonstrating that all funds in the account are exempt, the judgment creditor shall, within seven days of the postmark on the envelope containing the exemption claim form and accompanying information, instruct the banking institution to release the account, and the restraint shall be deemed void.

That is the single most useful sentence on this page. Send proof with the form. The rule tells you what counts:

Information demonstrating that funds are exempt includes, but is not limited to, originals or copies of benefit award letters, checks, check stubs or any other document that discloses the source of the judgment debtor's income, and bank records showing the last two months of account activity.

Where an account holds some exempt and some unknown funds, the creditor "shall apply the lowest intermediate balance principle of accounting" and release the exempt money on the same seven-day clock.

What happens if the creditor objects

CPLR 5222-a(d) sets a compressed timetable and, unusually, puts the burden on the creditor:

The judgment creditor must serve the banking institution and the judgment debtor with its motion papers within eight days after the date postmarked on the envelope containing the executed exemption claim form ... The affirmation or affidavit in support of the motion shall demonstrate a reasonable belief that such judgment debtor's account contains funds that are not exempt from execution and the amount of such nonexempt funds. ... The affirmation or affidavit shall not be conclusory, but is required to show the factual basis upon which the reasonable belief is based. The hearing to decide the motion shall be noticed for seven days after service of the moving papers. The executed exemption claim form shall be prima facie evidence at such hearing that the funds in the account are exempt funds. The burden of proof shall be upon the judgment creditor to establish the amount of funds that are not exempt. The court shall, within five days of the hearing, issue an order stating whether or not funds in the account are exempt.

Your signed form is prima facie evidence. The creditor has to overcome it, and a conclusory affidavit is expressly not enough.

Even then the freeze does not last indefinitely. CPLR 5222-a(e):

the banking institution shall retain the funds claimed to be exempt for twenty-one days unless otherwise ordered by the court. If the period of twenty-one days expires and the banking institution has not been otherwise ordered by the court, the banking institution shall release the funds to the judgment debtor.

The penalty for a bad-faith objection

CPLR 5222-a(g) is short and worth knowing about:

Where the judgment creditor objects to a claim of exemption pursuant to subdivision (d) of this section and the court finds that the judgment creditor disputed the claim of exemption in bad faith ... the judgment debtor shall be awarded costs, reasonable attorney fees, actual damages and an amount not to exceed one thousand dollars.

And two limits worth knowing before you rely on any of this. CPLR 5222-a(h) preserves everything else — "Nothing in this section shall in any way restrict the rights and remedies otherwise available to a judgment debtor." CPLR 5222-a(i) switches the whole procedure off where the creditor is the State, one of its agencies or a municipal corporation, or where the debt is for child support, spousal support, maintenance or alimony — provided the restraining notice carries the required sixteen-point legend saying so.

Bank fees are also addressed. Under CPLR 5222(j), where a bank cannot lawfully restrain the account, or restrains it in violation of the article, "the banking institution shall charge no fee to the judgment debtor regardless of any terms of agreement, or schedule of fees, or other contract."

How New York compares to the federal rules

	New York	Federal
Source of the procedure	CPLR 5222-a, a self-contained statutory scheme with mandatory forms	state law, borrowed by Rule 69
Exemption notice served with the restraint	required; omission makes the restraint void	varies by state
Bank must forward the package	within 2 business days, by first class mail	varies
Automatic protection, no claim needed	$2,500 where exempt direct deposits arrived in 45 days; plus 240 × minimum wage	none in the federal rules
Time to claim	20 days from the postmark	varies
Release if unopposed	8 days after the form is postmarked	varies
Creditor must release on proof	within 7 days	no counterpart
Burden at the hearing	on the creditor; the claim form is prima facie evidence	varies
Outer limit on a contested freeze	21 days unless the court orders otherwise	varies
Penalty for a bad-faith objection	costs, fees, damages and up to $1,000	no counterpart
Late claim waives the exemption	no, expressly	varies

There is no federal equivalent to any of this. Federal judgment enforcement borrows state procedure under Rule 69, which means that in a federal case in New York these are the rules that apply.

A short checklist

Check the two automatic protections first. If exempt payments were direct-deposited in the last 45 days, $2,500 should never have been restrained; and an account at or below the 240 × minimum-wage figure is outside the notice entirely.
Look up the current figures. Both amounts move — one on a three-year CPI cycle set by DFS, the other with the minimum wage.
Ask what was served on the bank. No exemption notice and two claim forms with the restraining notice means the notice is void.
Diary 20 days from the postmark, not from the day you found out.
Send both copies — bank and creditor's attorney.
Attach proof. An award letter, check stubs or two months of statements turns an eight-day wait into a seven-day obligation on the creditor.
Sign under penalty of perjury. The form is prima facie evidence at any hearing.
If you missed the deadline, do not assume it is over. The rule says failure to deliver the form is not a waiver.
If the objection was baseless, ask for the sanction — costs, fees, damages and up to $1,000.

Where these rules live

This page explains what the rules say; it is not legal advice, and it does not tell you whether any particular deposit in your account is exempt. If the creditor is the State or a municipality, or the debt is support or alimony, CPLR 5222-a(i) may switch this procedure off entirely.

How this guide is sourced. Every procedural statement here is drawn from the text of the rules named above, each of which is reproduced verbatim on its own page on this site. Quoted rule language appears in quotation marks or block quotes; everything else is original writing. Last verified August 17, 2026.

This page explains what the rules say. It is legal information, not legal advice, and it cannot tell you how a rule applies to your situation. Deadlines are often short and some are not extendable — if the outcome matters, talk to a lawyer or your court’s self-help center.