811.06.Bond; justification.

Attachment can damage a defendant even before a case is resolved, so section 811.06 requires the plaintiff to put up security first. Before the writ can be executed, the plaintiff must file a bond, in a sum the issuing judge or judicial officer sets, sufficient to give the defendant adequate security for any damages the attachment might cause. The bond promises that if the defendant ultimately recovers judgment, the plaintiff will pay all the damages the defendant sustains because of the attachment.

The surety backing that bond has to prove real financial strength. The surety’s affidavit must state that the surety is a resident householder or freeholder in Wisconsin and is worth double the sum specified in the bond, in property in the state, above debts and exclusive of exempt property — a higher bar than the ordinary surety justification in section 810.08, reflecting how much is at stake when a defendant’s property is seized before judgment.

The section carves out one plaintiff from the bond requirement entirely: no bond is necessary when the state, or a county, town, or municipality within it, is the plaintiff. That exemption tracks the same logic that exempts the state from posting security in other contexts — a government plaintiff’s ability to pay is not the kind of risk a bond is meant to cover.