North Dakota Bank Garnishment: How to Levy a Debtor's Bank Account After Judgment

When a judgment debtor won't pay voluntarily and you know where they bank, a bank garnishment can freeze their account and route the funds toward your judgment. In North Dakota, the process runs through N.D.C.C. Chapter 32-09.1 (non-wage garnishment) or a direct sheriff levy under a Writ of Execution — and the rules are different from wage garnishment in important ways.

How Bank Garnishment Works in North Dakota

Unlike wage garnishment, bank garnishment doesn't require a pre-garnishment notice served on the debtor 10 days in advance. Instead, you serve the Garnishee Summons directly on the bank, and then notify the debtor within 10 days afterward.

The basic sequence:

1. Serve the bank with a Garnishee Summons, Garnishment Disclosure Form, and the $40 statutory garnishee fee
2. The bank immediately freezes the account up to the retention amount
3. Serve the debtor with a copy of the Garnishee Summons within 10 days of serving the bank
4. The debtor has 20 days to file a Claim of Exemption under N.D.C.C. § 32-09.1-22
5. After the exemption window closes (or the court resolves any claim), serve a Writ of Execution to collect the frozen funds

The timing matters here. You serve the bank first, which triggers an immediate freeze. The debtor finds out after the freeze is in place — not before.

The Retention Amount: How Much Gets Frozen

The bank doesn't freeze the entire account balance. Under N.D.C.C. § 32-09.1-07(1)(b), the maximum retention amount is:

• The unpaid judgment balance, plus
• $125 for anticipated costs, plus
• 9 months of accrued post-judgment interest

If the account holds less than $10, no freeze is applied — the bank discloses a zero balance and that's the end of it.

If the account holds more than the retention amount, only the retention amount is frozen. The debtor can still access funds above that ceiling.

Federal Benefit Protections

This is the area where bank garnishments get complicated. Under federal regulation 31 C.F.R. Part 212, banks that receive a garnishment order must perform an automatic 2-month lookback on the account.

Any direct deposits from protected federal benefit programs — Social Security, SSI, Veterans Affairs benefits, Federal Railroad Retirement — are automatically shielded. The bank can't freeze those funds up to the two-month lookback amount, and the debtor doesn't need to file an exemption claim for this protection to kick in. It happens automatically.

So if the debtor receives $1,500/month in Social Security by direct deposit, the first $3,000 in the account (two months' worth) is untouchable. Only funds above that floor are available for garnishment.

Joint Account Complications

If the bank account is held jointly between the judgment debtor and a non-debtor (a spouse, for example), the bank's disclosure must identify all joint account holders. The court then provides notice to the non-debtor joint owner, giving them an opportunity to prove that some or all of the funds belong to them independently.

This doesn't kill the garnishment, but it can reduce the amount available. If the non-debtor spouse deposited their own paycheck into the joint account, those funds may not be reachable. The burden is on the non-debtor to demonstrate which deposits are theirs.

Collecting the Frozen Funds

A common misunderstanding: the Garnishee Summons freezes money but doesn't transfer it to you. To actually collect, you need one of two things:

• A written authorization from the debtor (rare — they'd need to agree to release the funds), or
• A Writ of Execution served by the sheriff on the bank

In practice, you almost always need the writ. The sheriff serves it, the bank releases the held funds, and the money goes toward satisfying your judgment.

Bank Garnishment vs. Writ of Execution: Which to Use

You can also reach bank accounts through a direct sheriff levy under a Writ of Execution (N.D.C.C. Chapter 28-21). The practical difference:

• Garnishee Summons → you serve it yourself, bank freezes and discloses, then you get a writ to collect
• Sheriff levy → the sheriff serves the writ directly on the bank, and the bank turns over funds to the sheriff

The Garnishee Summons route gives you the disclosure (so you learn what's in the account), while the sheriff levy is more direct but requires you to already know the account has attachable funds. Many creditors start with a garnishment to find out the balance, then follow up with a writ to collect.

For the complete process of locating and reaching a debtor's bank accounts — including how to use a debtor examination to identify which bank the debtor uses — see our North Dakota judgment collection guide.

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