New Hampshire Trustee Process: How to Freeze a Debtor's Bank Account

What Trustee Process Is and When to Use It

Because New Hampshire does not allow standard wage garnishment for civil judgments, trustee process under RSA Chapter 512 is the primary tool for reaching a debtor's liquid money. It works by having the court order a third party — typically a bank — to hold and turn over the debtor's non-exempt funds.

Trustee process is most effective when you know or suspect the debtor has a bank account with funds that exceed their exempt amounts. If the debtor's financial examination revealed specific bank accounts, this is your direct path to recovering what you are owed.

Step-by-Step: Filing a Writ of Trustee Process

Step 1: File the petition. Submit a Petition for Writ of Trustee Process through the TurboCourt e-filing portal at the District Division where your judgment was entered. The filing fee is $40.

Step 2: Court issues the writ. Once the court approves your petition, the clerk issues a Writ of Trustee Process naming the specific bank as the trustee.

Step 3: Sheriff serves the bank. A county sheriff or deputy serves the writ on the financial institution. You cannot serve the bank yourself, and you cannot freeze the account on your own without a court-issued writ. The writ commands the bank to hold all attachable, non-exempt funds up to the judgment amount.

Step 4: Bank discloses frozen funds. The bank must submit a written Trustee Disclosure to the court within the statutory return timeframe, stating whether it holds the debtor's funds and how much was frozen.

Step 5: Debtor receives notice. The debtor gets notice of the attachment and can request a hearing to claim exemptions or contest ownership of the frozen funds.

Step 6: Court orders payment. If the court determines the held funds are non-exempt, it enters an order commanding the bank to remit the money to you.

What the Bank Cannot Freeze

Federal law and New Hampshire statutes protect certain funds from trustee process:

• Federal benefits — Under 31 CFR Part 212, banks must perform a two-month lookback on the account. Directly deposited Social Security, SSI, Veterans Affairs benefits, and federal civil service retirement payments are protected. The bank must leave those amounts fully accessible to the account holder.
• Tax-qualified retirement funds — Under RSA 511:2, XIX, retirement assets like IRAs and 401(k)s deposited in bank accounts maintain their exempt status.
• Joint account complications — Funds held jointly with a non-judgment party are not automatically collectible. The court must determine the debtor's actual ownership share before ordering payment.

What It Costs

The $40 court filing fee is just the beginning. You will also pay sheriff service fees to serve the writ on the bank, which vary by county. If the bank reports insufficient funds or a prior perfected security interest, the writ yields nothing — but those sheriff service costs get added to the debtor's judgment balance under District Division Rule 4.10(g).

When Trustee Process Comes Up Empty

If the debtor's account is drained or the balance falls entirely within protected federal benefits, trustee process will not recover anything. In that case, consider a Writ of Execution to target personal property, or a Motion for Periodic Payments to establish a court-ordered installment plan based on the debtor's income.

Our Collecting a Small Claims Judgment in New Hampshire guide walks through how to choose between these enforcement tools and includes a decision flowchart for picking the right approach based on what you know about the debtor's assets.

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