North Dakota Wage Garnishment After a Judgment: Limits, Process, and Forms

You've got a North Dakota judgment and the debtor is employed but won't pay. Wage garnishment lets you redirect a portion of their paycheck directly to your judgment — but the process has specific notice requirements, percentage limits, and dependent deductions that you need to follow exactly, or the entire garnishment is void.

Here's how it works under N.D.C.C. Chapter 32-09.1.

How Much Can Be Garnished From Wages in North Dakota

North Dakota caps wage garnishment at the lesser of two amounts:

• 25% of disposable earnings for that workweek, OR
• The amount by which weekly disposable earnings exceed 40 times the federal minimum wage ($7.25/hour × 40 = $290 per week)

"Disposable earnings" means gross pay minus mandatory deductions — federal and state taxes, Social Security, and Medicare. Voluntary deductions like 401(k) contributions or health insurance premiums don't reduce the base.

But there's a twist unique to North Dakota: the garnishment amount is further reduced by $20 for each dependent family member living with the debtor. To claim this deduction, the debtor must submit a sworn list of dependents (including Social Security numbers) to the employer within 10 days of receiving the Garnishee Summons.

A Real-World Calculation

Say the debtor earns $500 per week gross, with $80 in mandatory deductions:

For a higher earner at $1,000/week gross with $200 in deductions and 3 dependents, the final garnishment would be $140/week. The 25% cap almost always controls for moderate earners, while the 40× minimum wage floor protects low-wage workers from having too little left.

The Mandatory Pre-Garnishment Notice

This is the step that catches most creditors off guard. Before you can serve a Garnishee Summons on the debtor's employer, you must serve a pre-garnishment notice on the debtor at least 10 calendar days in advance, under N.D.C.C. § 32-09.1-04(1).

This notice can be served personally or by first-class mail. Skip it, and the wage garnishment is completely void — not voidable, void. The debtor's employer could be withholding and remitting for months, and the whole thing unravels if this notice wasn't served first.

Serving the Employer

After the 10-day notice period:

1. Serve the Garnishee Summons, Disclosure Form, and $40 fee on the employer. The $40 is a statutory garnishee fee paid directly to the employer for their administrative costs.
2. Serve the debtor within 10 days with a copy of everything you served on the employer.
3. The employer completes a Garnishment Disclosure Affidavit within 20 days, reporting the debtor's disposable earnings and garnishment calculation.

The employer holds the withheld earnings in trust. They don't pay you directly based on the Garnishee Summons alone — you need to serve a Writ of Execution on the employer to compel the formal turnover of accumulated funds.

The Continuing Lien: 270 Days of Automatic Withholding

If your Garnishee Summons explicitly states "Continuing Lien" in the caption, the garnishment stays active for 270 days against future earnings. The underlying summons itself is valid for 360 days.

To extend the continuing lien before it expires, serve a renewal notice on the debtor between 10 and 20 days before the 270-day mark. Miss this window and you have to start the garnishment process over.

Priority: Child Support Comes First

If the debtor is already subject to a child support withholding order, that order takes absolute priority over your civil judgment garnishment under N.D.C.C. § 14-09-09.15 — regardless of which was served first. The employer applies the child support deduction before calculating what's available for your garnishment.

What If the Debtor Changes Jobs

A wage garnishment is served on a specific employer. If the debtor quits or gets fired, the garnishment dies with that employment. You'd need to identify the new employer and start the garnishment process again — new pre-garnishment notice, new Garnishee Summons, new $40 fee.

This is why wage garnishment works best for debtors with stable employment. For self-employed debtors or those who job-hop, bank garnishment or a writ of execution against property may be more effective.

Our complete North Dakota judgment collection guide includes a garnishment calculator worksheet that runs the five-step withholding calculation for any pay period, plus templates for the pre-garnishment notice and continuing lien renewal timelines.

See more North Dakota guides →