Legal Definitions - garnisher

A garnisher is a creditor—an individual or entity to whom money is owed—who initiates a specific legal process called a garnishment. This action aims to collect a debt by targeting the debtor's money or property that is currently held by a third party.

In essence, the garnisher is the party actively seeking to intercept funds or assets from someone else (the garnishee) that rightfully belong to their debtor, in order to satisfy the outstanding debt.

• Example 1: Unpaid Credit Card Debt

  Imagine a credit card company that is owed a significant amount of money by a customer who has repeatedly failed to make payments. The credit card company discovers that this customer has a savings account at a local bank.

  In this situation, the credit card company would be the garnisher. It would initiate a garnishment action against the local bank (the third party holding the funds) to seize the customer's savings and apply them towards the outstanding credit card debt.

• Example 2: Overdue Child Support

  Consider a parent who is legally owed child support payments by their former spouse, but the payments have become severely overdue. The parent knows that their former spouse is employed by a large corporation.

  Here, the parent seeking the overdue child support is the garnisher. They would obtain a court order to garnish the former spouse's wages directly from the corporation (the employer, acting as the third party), ensuring that a portion of each paycheck goes directly to satisfy the child support obligation.

• Example 3: Unpaid Supplier Invoice

  A small manufacturing company supplied raw materials to a larger client, but the client has not paid the invoice for several months. The manufacturing company learns that its client is expecting a large payment from one of its own customers for a completed project.

  The manufacturing company, in this scenario, acts as the garnisher. It could pursue a garnishment action against the client's customer (the third party) to have the payment for the completed project sent directly to the manufacturing company, thereby settling the overdue invoice for the raw materials.