Virginia garnishment: the exemption form must be attached, or no summons may issue
Virginia procedure · Last verified August 17, 2026
Virginia builds two protections into garnishment that are worth checking before anything else, because both make the paperwork itself void rather than merely arguable.
A summons may not be issued or served at all unless the exemption notice and claim form are attached. And a wage garnishment summons that does not meet four specific requirements is void once the garnishee answers.
The exemption form is a condition of issuing the summons
Va. Code § 8.01-512.4 opens with a prohibition, not a direction:
No summons in garnishment shall be issued or served, nor shall any notice of lien be served on a financial institution pursuant to § 8.01-502.1, unless a notice of exemptions and claim for exemption form are attached.
The section then prescribes the notice itself, headed:
NOTICE TO JUDGMENT DEBTOR HOW TO CLAIM EXEMPTIONS FROM GARNISHMENT AND LIEN The attached Summons in Garnishment or Notice of Lien has been issued on request of a creditor who holds a judgment against you. The Summons may cause your property or wages to be held or taken to pay the judgment.
If you received a garnishment summons with no exemption notice and claim form attached, that is the first thing to raise.
Automatic exemptions at a bank — and their limits
The prescribed notice is unusually candid about how automatic protection works:
The law provides that certain property and wages cannot be taken in garnishment. Such property is said to be exempted. Financial institutions are required by law to exempt certain funds, federal benefit payments, and state benefit payments automatically in certain garnishment cases. These exemptions are listed below. You do not need to file a claim for exemption to receive this automatic exemption but receiving this automatic exemption in no way impairs or limits your right to claim additional exemptions as set forth in the request for hearing form below. Please be advised that just because you receive one or more of the listed federal and state benefit payments does not mean that these funds will be automatically exempted. If the debt at issue arises from a child support or spousal support obligation, the financial institution may be prohibited by law from withholding these benefit payments from garnishment. Please consult the relevant section of federal or state law of the listed benefit payment for further details.
Three things follow, and they are easy to get wrong in either direction.
Some protection is automatic, and a bank must apply it without any claim from you — under § 8.01-511(C) the duty of a financial institution to examine the account under §§ 34-4.3 and 34-4.4 is expressly preserved.
Automatic does not mean complete. The notice warns in terms that receiving a listed benefit does not guarantee the funds are automatically exempted.
Claiming more is still open to you. The automatic exemption "in no way impairs or limits your right to claim additional exemptions" on the request for hearing form.
Four requirements that make a wage summons void
§ 8.01-511(C) is the provision most worth checking on any wage garnishment:
Except as provided herein, no summons shall be issued pursuant to this section for the garnishment of wages, salaries, commissions, or other earnings unless it (i) is in the form prescribed by § 8.01-512.3; (ii) is directed to only one garnishee for the garnishment of only one judgment debtor; (iii) contains both the "TOTAL BALANCE DUE" and the social security number of the judgment debtor in the proper places as provided on the summons; and (iv) specifies that it is a garnishment against (a) the judgment debtor's wages, salary, or other compensation or (b) some other debt due or property of the judgment debtor. The garnishee shall not be liable to the judgment creditor for any property not specified in the summons as provided in clause (iv). Upon receipt of a summons not in compliance with this provision, the garnishee shall file a written answer to that effect and shall have no liability to the judgment creditor, such summons being void upon transmission of the answer.
| Requirement | What to check |
|---|---|
| (i) prescribed form | the § 8.01-512.3 form |
| (ii) one garnishee, one debtor | not a combined summons |
| (iii) TOTAL BALANCE DUE and the SSN | both, in the proper places |
| (iv) what is being garnished | wages, or other debt or property — stated expressly |
Two consequences. The garnishee is not liable for property not specified under (iv) — so a summons aimed at wages does not reach a bank account. And a non-compliant summons is void upon transmission of the garnishee's answer, without any motion from the debtor.
Service on you, not just your employer
§ 8.01-511(A) requires both:
The summons and the notice and claim for exemption form required pursuant to § 8.01-512.4 shall be served on the garnishee, and shall be served on the judgment debtor promptly after service on the garnishee.
The creditor must give the clerk or process server a stamped, addressed envelope for you, and:
Promptly after service on the garnishee, the person making service shall mail such envelope by first-class mail to the judgment debtor at his last known address. … The person making service shall note on his return the date of such mailing which, with the notation "copy mailed to judgment debtor," shall be sufficient proof of the mailing
So the return of service should carry that notation and a date. If it does not, the mailing is not proved.
The eighteen-month allegation
§ 8.01-511(E) requires the creditor's suggestion to contain an allegation, and the second option is worth knowing:
2. No summons has been issued upon his suggestion against the same judgment debtor within a period of 18 months, other than under the provisions of subdivision 1;
Subdivision 1 covers a summons based on a judgment where a prior summons has been issued but not fully satisfied, and subdivision 3 covers debts for necessary food, rent or shelter, public utilities including telephone service, drugs, or medical care — expressly "not for luxuries or nonessentials."
A creditor outside those categories that has garnished the same debtor inside eighteen months has a problem with its own pleading.
Costs and interest
§ 8.01-511(D) requires the creditor to specify the interest claimed, calculated to the return day, and to set out credits already made. Post-judgment costs paid to a clerk, sheriff or process server are chargeable to the debtor — but a process server's fee chargeable against the judgment debtor "shall not exceed the fee authorized for service by the sheriff", however much the creditor actually paid.
That is a checkable number on the summons.
How much can be taken
The federal Consumer Credit Protection Act floor applies — the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or the amount by which disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum hourly wage — with Virginia's own exemptions, including the homestead exemption, layered on top. Those exemption provisions sit in Title 34 of the Code of Virginia, outside this site's Virginia corpus.
How Virginia compares
| Virginia | Colorado | Ohio | Georgia | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exemption form must be attached to the summons | yes — or it may not issue | blank Form 28 served with the writ | statutory notice | — |
| Non-compliant summons void | yes, on the garnishee's answer | — | — | yes, wrong affidavit |
| Debtor must be served too | yes, promptly after the garnishee | via the employer, 7 days | yes | yes, 3 business days |
| Automatic bank exemptions | yes, §§ 34-4.3, 34-4.4 | — | — | — |
| Repeat-garnishment restriction | 18 months, with exceptions | one writ per period | — | — |
A short checklist
- Check that the exemption notice and claim form were attached. Without them the summons should not have issued or been served.
- Check the four requirements in § 8.01-511(C) — prescribed form, one garnishee and one debtor, TOTAL BALANCE DUE and SSN, and what is being garnished.
- Check what the summons says it reaches. A wage summons does not reach other property, and the garnishee is not liable for anything unspecified.
- Look at the return of service for the "copy mailed to judgment debtor" notation and its date.
- Use the request for hearing form to claim exemptions beyond any automatic bank exemption — the two are cumulative.
- Do not assume benefits are safe automatically. The statutory notice warns that receiving a listed benefit does not guarantee automatic exemption.
- Check the 18-month allegation in the creditor's suggestion if you have been garnished before.
- Check the interest and credits the creditor set out, and the process server fee cap.
- If the judgment itself is defective, attack it separately — the garnishment hearing decides exemptions, not the judgment.
Where these rules live
- Va. Code § 8.01-511 — Institution of garnishment proceedings; penalty
- Va. Code § 8.01-512.3 — Form of garnishment summons
- Va. Code § 8.01-512.4 — Notice of exemptions and claim for exemption form
- Va. Code § 8.01-512.5 — Garnishment proceedings; hearing
- Va. Code § 8.01-251 — Limitations on enforcement of judgments
This page explains what the statute says. It isn't legal advice, and the exemptions themselves — Title 34 of the Code of Virginia, including the homestead exemption — sit outside this site's Virginia corpus, which covers Title 8.01 and the Rules of Supreme Court.