North Dakota Garnishment Summons: Forms, Filing, and the 10-Day Notice Rule

Filing a garnishment in North Dakota means serving a Garnishee Summons — the state's term for the document that orders a third party (an employer or bank) to hold and disclose what they owe or hold for the judgment debtor. A wage garnishment has a mandatory notice step before the summons is served on the employer; skipping it can void that wage garnishment.

The Pre-Garnishment Notice: Serve It First or Lose Everything

Under N.D.C.C. § 32-09.1-04(1), before you issue a Garnishee Summons against the debtor's earnings, you must serve a pre-garnishment notice on the debtor at least 10 calendar days in advance.

This notice tells the debtor that you intend to garnish their wages and gives them an opportunity to pay voluntarily. You can serve it personally or by first-class mail.

The 10-day requirement is not a suggestion. If you skip the notice or serve the Garnishee Summons too soon, the wage garnishment is void from the start — even if the employer has already been withholding.

For non-wage garnishments (bank accounts, for example), the notice requirements differ slightly. The debtor gets served a copy of the Garnishee Summons within 10 days of service on the bank, and then has 20 days to file an exemption claim. But for wages, the 10-day advance notice to the debtor is an absolute prerequisite.

Assembling the Garnishment Packet

Once the 10-day notice period passes, you prepare the garnishment packet:

Documents to serve on the garnishee (employer or bank):

• Garnishee Summons
• Garnishment Disclosure Form
• $40 statutory garnishee fee (check payable to the employer or bank)

Documents to serve on the debtor (within 10 days of serving the garnishee):

• Copy of the Garnishee Summons
• Copy of the Disclosure Form

The Garnishee Summons form is available through the North Dakota Legal Self Help Center at ndcourts.gov. It requires the case number, the names of all parties, the judgment balance, and accrued interest. If you want a continuing lien on future wages, that designation must appear in the summons caption — it's not automatic.

The $40 Garnishee Fee

North Dakota law requires the judgment creditor to pay a $40 fee to the garnishee at the time of service under N.D.C.C. § 32-09.1-10. This compensates the employer or bank for the administrative work of calculating, withholding, and disclosing the debtor's financial information.

If the garnishee is a state agency, the fee goes to the Office of Management and Budget instead.

The $40 is recoverable as part of your judgment enforcement costs if the garnishment succeeds.

The Disclosure Timeline

After being served, the garnishee must complete and return a Garnishment Disclosure Affidavit within 20 days. This form details:

• For wages: the debtor's disposable earnings, pay frequency, and the garnishment calculation
• For bank accounts: the balance held, any joint account holders, and whether protected federal benefits were identified

If a garnishee willfully fails to serve a disclosure, the court may enter judgment against it after the creditor submits proof by affidavit. The amount cannot exceed the lesser of the creditor's judgment or the statutory retention amount. Employers and banks take this seriously.

What Happens to the Frozen Funds

The Garnishee Summons freezes funds or directs withholding, but it doesn't transfer money to you. To actually collect:

1. The employer holds withheld wages in trust
2. The bank freezes the account up to the retention amount (judgment balance + $125 for costs + 9 months of interest)
3. You serve a Writ of Execution to compel the formal turnover of the held funds

This two-step structure — freeze then collect — protects the debtor's right to claim exemptions before any money leaves the garnishee's hands.

Serving Multiple Garnishments

If the debtor has wages and a bank account, you can serve separate Garnishee Summonses on both the employer and the bank. Each is an independent action with its own $40 fee and disclosure timeline. Just remember that for the wage garnishment, you need the pre-garnishment notice served 10 days in advance.

Multiple garnishments can run simultaneously, but the total collected can't exceed the judgment balance plus interest and costs. Once the judgment is satisfied, any outstanding garnishments must be released.

For a complete walkthrough of every garnishment form and timeline in North Dakota's judgment collection process, our step-by-step guide sequences the paperwork from the initial pre-garnishment notice through final collection, with a checklist for tracking each deadline.

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