12-701.Affidavit for garnishment; Contents.

Section 12-701 opens Part 7 by describing how a garnishment case begins. The judgment creditor, or someone acting for the creditor, files three things at once: an affidavit identifying a person or company the creditor believes holds money or property belonging to the judgment debtor, the garnishment notice required by Section 12-705, and written interrogatories for that person, called the garnishee, to answer. The affidavit must name the judgment debtor, give the debtor's last known address, and describe the affiant's belief about the debt or property.

Once those papers are filed, the clerk issues a summons commanding the garnishee to appear in court and answer the interrogatories in writing and under oath. The section also requires the interrogatories themselves to demand something specific: the garnishee's certification that it mailed the judgment debtor a copy of its completed answer, tying this filing step to the mailing duty spelled out later in Section 12-707(b).

Notice the limiting phrase built into the affidavit requirement: the debt or property at issue must be something other than wages. Illinois handles wage garnishment through a separate procedure, the wage deduction process in Part 8 of this Article, so a creditor chasing unpaid wages from an employer files there instead of under Section 12-701.